92 The Irish Naturalist. June, 



resumption of song, reoccupation of breeding quarters, 

 and proud display by the male birds of their readiness 

 to take the field against all intruding rivals, that a little 

 local knowledge of the most favoured spring resorts of 

 the various " missing " species should enable an ornithologist 

 to make practically sure of the presence or absence of 

 the birds. By the end of March the question would be 

 complicated by the fact that four out of the hve species 

 mentioned above are summer visitants as well as residents, 

 and should by that season have returned in some force 

 to their Irish nesting quarters. It was, therefore, necessary 

 to remain continuously on the outlook for signs of spring 

 immigration ; but the backward character of the year 

 rather simplified the problem. 



The vStonechat, the first of our lost birds, is not only 

 a partial migrant but, in most years, one of our very early 

 spring visitors ; for the Irish light-house returns show that 

 three-fourths of Mr. Barrington's specimens during the 

 spring movement had struck the lanterns between the 

 middle of February and the middle of March. But though 

 I have visited many of this conspicuous bird's best-known 

 haunts during tlie past tw^o months not a Stonechat have 

 I seen. Even at so late a date as April 24th I went 

 up Blackstairs without seeing a sign of its presence any- 

 where on the mountain. The melanchoty state of its loved 

 furze-bushes, nearly all killed by the snow, would perhaps 

 deter it from occupying its usual quarters ; but I have 

 no proof that, even as a migrant, it has yet (April 28th) 

 visited any of its haunts this year. 



The absence of the Golden-crested Wren it still more 

 marked ; for the song of this little bird, first heard as a 

 rule about the beginning of February, is one of the most 

 familiar of the greetings to which the nature-lover in 

 Ireland has hitherto been accustomed as he took his walks 

 around. The fact of its extermination as a resident 

 breeding species has been set beyond doubt by its pro- 

 longed silence. As a spring immigrant it is not so early 

 as the Stonechat. Mr. Barrington's records show that 

 most of the captmes by light -keepers are made between 

 the 15th of March and the T5th of April. From these 



