Birds observed Breedifig on the Coasts of Sligo and Mayo. 199 



Reaching the cottage at about six o'clock we found the old 

 man cutting grass, but on hearing what we wanted, he became 

 quite excited, threw down his scythe, and would have talked of 

 eagles and their nests all night if allowed. He told me that 

 eagles as long as he remembered regularly bred on that part 

 of the coast until about three years before, when he had the 

 nest robbed bj^ a boy who he let down with a rope over the 

 cliff, and that since then the pair had removed further west to 

 the Porturlin cliffs. On questioning him as to their appear- 

 ance he described them as follows, saying " The eagle that 

 bred on the cliffs was the Grey Eagle, almost as grey as a 

 Goose," and that they lived chiefi}^ on hares, sometimes taking 

 a Duck, or a Hen, and occasionally a lamb, but that they were 

 not nearly so destructive to lambs as the Black Eagle that 

 occasionally visited them from the mountains inland near 

 Corick and Bangor" ; thus distinguishing between the light- 

 coloured Sea Kagle of the cliffs, and the darker-coloured 

 Golden Eagle of the inland mountains. Finding I had no 

 chance of seeing the eagles I was about to return, when the 

 old man avSked if I would like to see some birds on the cliffs, 

 and L,oughtmurriga, the former nesting-place of the eagles. 

 So after less than a quarter of a mile's walk up the boggy side 

 of the hill, we came to the sea-cliffs of a great bay, semicircular, 

 like a vast amphitheatre, bounded by wall-like cliffs 600 and 

 700 feet high from the water. Lying down I looked over the 

 edge, and was amazed at the thousands of birds covering the 

 face of the cliff, and flying about between it and the water, 

 giving the idea of bees swarming round a hive — Puffins, 

 Razorbills, Guillemots, and Kittiwake Gulls, all building in 

 that order, except that the Puffins were everywhere on the 

 face of the cliff from the lowest tier of Kittiwakes' nests up to 

 the very summit. However, I should mention that, for any 

 one of the other birds there must have been a hundred Puffins. 

 I lay for a long time looking on in wonder and amazement 

 at the scene before me, for, although I had read of such 

 gatherings, I was never until then able to realize the fact. 



We then moved about three hundred yards to the east and 

 came on another bay opening out from the cliff of I^ought- 

 murriga, 790 feet high ; here the birds were still more numerous. 

 Puffins in tens of thousands, all over the face of the cliffs, 

 burrowing in the turfy slopes, and occupying every hole and 



