September. 1908. The Irish Naturalht. 165 



BIRD LIFE IN DUBLIN BAY. 



The Passing of Clontarf Island. 



by ai.exander williams, r-h.a. 



Perhaps few cities are so favourably situated aud possess such 

 varied surroundings of woods and plains, rivers, hills and sea- 

 coast as our capital, and the lover of nature, in his rambles 

 through the woodlands or b}^ the margin of the sea, can daily 

 see much to awaken interest and inspire habits of observation. 

 Even when walking at night-time in the city the voices of 

 birds that pass in the night often strike on the ear, and the 

 observant naturalist can easil}^ discern the different species. 

 This is especially the case in the vicinity of St. Stephen's- 

 green Park, for many birds unobservable in the night-time 

 are attracted b}^ the sounds made by the waterfowl on the orna- 

 mental pond there, and may often be heard wheeling in their 

 flight over the park and uttering their call-notes. During the 

 dark nights in the month of October the shrill, cheep-like 

 cry of the Redwing is commonly heard as the migrat- 

 ing flocks pass over the housetops coming from the north, 

 and it has been noticed that the sounds seem nearest when 

 the nights are misty, and the birds, probably attracted by the 

 lights of the city, fly low. The whistle of the Curlew, also, is 

 one that is very frequently heard, and its weird cry, sounding 

 over the gas-lighted streets amid the rumble of traffic, often 

 excites in the mind a pleasurable emotion, so intimately is it 

 associated with the wild moorland, or the sea shore and the 

 sullen murmur of the surf. 



To many of the town dwellers perhaps the large number of 

 aquatic birds to be seen about the city will attract most atten- 

 tion, and the seashore stretching from Clontarf to Howth, and 

 from the South Wall to Kingstown, presents an everchanging 

 field for observation. During the last twenty-five years some 

 very remarkable alterations have taken place in the Bay of 

 Dublin, affecting the distribution of sea and land birds. On 

 the south side we have had a serious encroachment of the sea 

 between the Pigeon-house Fort and the Poolbeg Lighthouse. 

 An important range of sandhills of some height and rich in 

 verdure existed some years ago along the edge of the sea in 



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