J899.] Notes. *5i 



BIRDS. 



Grey Phalarope !n Co. Armagh. 



Mr. H. W. Marsden writes to the Zoologist for October that he received 

 from Mr. W. Keatley a male Grey Phalarope (P/ialaropus fidicarius) shot 

 on September 28th, near Lurgan. 



Cannets on the Bull Rock. 



Owing to the apparent uncertainty that prevails as to the above 

 breeding-colony of the Gannet (the only other such colony on the Irish 

 coast besides the Little Skellig), I have made enquiry of the principal 

 light-keeper, from whom I have received the following reply : — 



" Bull Rock light-house, Garnish, Sept. 16th, 1899.— In reply to your 

 letter of 12th August, relative to birds in our district, particularly as to 

 number of Gannets on the rock, I have made enquiry from a number of 

 the natives, who should be most likely to know about the Gannets. and 

 send you the result. The Gannets first began to build on the Bull Rock 

 about twenty-five or thirty years ago, and for some years only about six 

 or eight pairs had nests on it ; during the four or five years of the 

 building of the lighthouse the Gannets rather decreased in numbers ; 

 my own observations, extending back three seasons, are that Gannets 

 are by far more numerous this year than any of the two previous years — 

 in all I should say there are 500 to 700 nests on the rock. The Gannets 

 come to the Bull in February, and appear to take from 1st April (when 

 the first eggs are to be had), up to 1st September before the first young 

 fly from nest, and all clear away about the 3rd or 4th October. What we 

 take to be the young birds of the year before come to the Rock about 

 the end of July. Rock Pipits also build on the Bull Rock— about half-a- 

 dozen pairs. The Red-legged Jackdaws are still plentiful in the district ; 

 I counted over forty in the lighthouse ground ashore a day or two ago. 

 The other birds building on the Rock are — Guillemots, Razor-bills, 

 Puffins, Kittiwakes, and one pair of Common [Herring] Gulls built last 

 year. No Gannets have ever been known to build on the " Cow " where 

 all the above [birds breed] except Gannets, and, in addition, Cormorants 

 and Black-backed Gulls. The sea-birds have been very plentiful around 

 the rocks this last season. On the night of the 13th August last we had 

 a regular invasion of Stormy Petrels on the rock, and over thirty were 

 killed. Those birds, I think, build in the rock, but only a pair or so, and 

 we have never been able to find the nest. — James Higginbotham, 

 1st Keeper." 



I may remark on the above that Gannets must have bred on the Bull 

 Rock longer than Mr. Higginbotham or his informants suppose, for Mr. 

 Hutchins, who visited it in June, 1868, found " certainly many hundreds " 

 there (Zoologist, 1882, p. no), and Major Vernon, who sailed past it 

 about 1876, estimated them by thousands {Field, 1st July, 1876). I was 

 not aware that Gannets laid before May, and I hope Mr. Higginbotham 

 next year will note the date when the first eggs are found. We should 

 also be glad to have a description of what he calls lC the young birds 

 of the year before." 



Cappagh. R. J. USSHER. 



