Birds observed Breedmg on the Coasts of Sligo and Mayo. 183 



some Jackdaws feeding their young in the crevices of the sides, 

 and were agreeably surprised to hear the musical calls of a 

 Chough, and shortly after saw a pair go into a hole near 

 where the Jackdaws were, and heard them feeding their 

 young ones. 



Keadue is an immense amphitheatre-like bay, running for 

 a quarter of a mile into the land, and about as wide at the 

 entrance, surrounded by a perpendicular wall of rock 350 feet 

 in height, upon the edges of which a large colony of Herring 

 Gulls had nests (perhaps a hundred pairs), while several pairs 

 of the ubiquitous Green Cormorants were scattered about the 

 face of the cliffs, having nests in the holes and crannies ; and 

 about halfway on the western side a beautiful pair of Peregrine 

 Falcons had their eyrie some thirty feet below the top, on a 

 flat ledge under an overhanging vslab of rodk. 



As there were conflicting accounts of the species of eagle 

 breeding on the North Mayo coast, I was anxious to visit 

 their haunts, and ascertain if possible which species really 

 bred there ; and also to continue my observations of the coast- 

 breeding birds from Downpatrick Head and Keadue, as far 

 west along the coast as possible. However, owing to the 

 long-continued bad weather of the summer of 1892, I was 

 unable to leave for my first visit until the 30th of June, 

 when, at a quarter past 8 o'clock, a.m., I left Ballina on my 

 twenty-mile drive to Belderig, via Killala and Ball3'castle. 

 On reaching the latter village, while our horse was resting 

 and feeding, I walked on before as far as Keadue, and during 

 my three miles walk through the valley and along the river, 

 I met a great variety of birds. Sedge Warblers singing in the 

 reeds by the river banks ; Corncrakes calling from the little 

 patches of oats, the three species of Bunting ; Thrushes, 

 Common and Mountain Linnets, Goldfinches, Swifts, Swal- 

 lows, and Sand Martins ; a few Chafiinches and Green 

 Linnets — stragglers from the few trees and bushes near 

 the villages ; Meadow Pipits and Skylarks, the latter very 

 numerous. However, as soon as the bog district v.-as 

 reached, a little beyond Keadue, onl}^ the two species 

 of larks were to be seen. Though whenever there was a 

 solitary cottage, even in the bog, with its little patches of oats 

 and potatoes, there a few Twites and buntings were seen. 



