An Oniitlwlogical Exptoratio7i. 'Y49 



flags. This species is rapidly iiicreasing on Xough Erne in 

 the breeding season. . . .,...i;: 



We then rowed to a remote island, its centre occupied with 

 natural wood, with a broad beach on which stones of various 

 sizes occurred. On this beach a scattered colony of some 

 twelve or fifteen pairs of Lesser Black-backed Gulls w^ere 

 breeding. It is twenty miles from the open sea, and, except 

 on a mountain-bog in Co. Antrim, is the only inland colony 

 of these birds I have seen, though others exist in other lakes. 

 The nests were here and there among the stones on the beach, 

 some having evidently been robbed. Common Sandpipers 

 were numerous. On this island I heard the song of the 

 Garden Warbler, now so familiar from my acquaintance with 

 it in the Shannon Valley. The late Sir Victor Brooke knew 

 it well at Castle Caldwell, lower down the lake, and considered 

 that there must be ten or twelve pairs in the place in 1869. 



At Knniskillen I was shown a Spotted Crake in the posses- 

 sion of Mr. lyUnham, which was shot with another of the 

 . same species late in the summer or early in the autumn of 

 1890, by George Husband.s, on Upper I^ough Krne, where he 

 saw two more. 



On June loth, I visited the mill-dam at Castle Irvine, a marsh 

 abounding in breeding Mallards, Teal, Snipe and I^apwings. 

 ^ Here a male Shoveller got up, and Captain D' Arcy Irvine, who 

 accompanied me, as well as the late Sir Victor Brooke, told 

 me that Shovellers breed there. I also learned that Crossbills 

 had remained and presumably bred at Castle Irvine the three 

 preceding 3^ears, though previously unknown there. 



On the road from CoUooney to Hollybrook, Co. Sligo, I 

 was struck by the tameness of a pair of Mergansers, male and 

 female, which were quite unconcerned at my gazing at them 

 while the car stopped. They were on a small open lake about 

 a hundred yards from me — overlooked from the road. 



Hollybrook, the seat of the late Colonel Ffolliott on lyough 

 Arrow, occupies a beautifully wooded tract between limestone 

 heights at the back, rising into cliffs (the home of the 

 . Peregrine) and the lake shores in front, which are indented 

 and covered with a tangle of natural wood, several large 

 : islands lying not far off. On one of these I saw a pair of 

 Dunlins in breeding plumage, and Ringed Plovers and Red- 

 shanks, which were excited about their eggs or young. We 



