256 The h'ish Naturalist. December, 1910. 



,,..,.; Birds of Lough Neagh. 



It niay be wortli recording that on 23r(l May last, I found a pair of 

 Oyster-catchers breeding on a small islet in Lough Neagh. They had 

 four eggs laid on the small dry part of the recently submerged ground. 

 A few pairs of Black-headed Gulls, and on a similar islet near by a few 

 Terns, with one or two pairs of SanJpipers and Sedge-warblers with the 

 inevitable Coots and Moorhens were the onlv other birds breeding there. 

 The Mallards had brought out their clutches and were gone to the 

 marshes inshore. Their nests can always be found there in the forks of 

 low willow and alder bushes which are at the ducks' breeding time stand- 

 iusj in I to 2 feet of water. 



*£> 



J. SinGT^ETON DARIylNG. 



I/Urgan. 



- '- ■ Ravens in Sligo and Leitrim. 



On August 15th, 1910, when shooting on Differeen Mountain in 

 Leitrim, close to the Sligo boundary, I saw four Ravens in the air 

 together. We saw them several times during the day, and the keeper, an 

 old hand at observing birds, thought the}^ were a brood of j'oung birds 

 driven away from the nesting ground of the old ones. No Ravens have 

 nested for years on Differeen Mountain ; on the mountains to the 

 north and east there are always some nests. On August 23rd, the same 

 mountain was shot again, and thirteen Ravens were seen in the day ; 

 the re we re four or five observers, all well accustomed to watch and note 

 birds, so there can hardly have been anj' mistake. On the 28th August 

 (Sunda}') six Ravens were seen together flying over Hazlewood, which 

 is about seven or eight miles from Differeen. They were seen several 

 times during the afternoon. Since then the Ravens have visited the 

 neighbourhood constantly, sometimes three or four together more often 

 singly. The keeper on the property states that he remembers a some- 

 what similar visitation some sixteen years ago, but the birds were not 

 so numerous as they are this year. 



Frkderick W. Shaw. 

 Bushy Park, Terenure. 



;" . *- , The Shore Lark in Ireland. 



I have long expected that that very interesting arctic breeding bird 

 ..the Shore Lark {Otocorys alpestris) \^o\x\Ci extend its range to Ireland — 

 -;\i^hen .migrating southward in autumn, as its occurrences in Great 

 ,, Britain have been of increasing frequency since 1830, when it was first 

 . obsjerved. On November, 4th one was shot close to Wicklow Head 

 ^ Lighthou.se and was sent to nie in. the flesh in a much damaged 

 condition. . ;., 



-H...: Richard M. Barrington. 



Fassaroe, Bray. • .. .; 



