19-4- Notes. 109 



NOTES. 



Red-Necked Phalarope breeding in Co. Done.icaI. 



It is with very great pleasure that I send you a new Irish breeding 

 record of the Ked-necked Plialarope [Phalaropus lobatus). Hitherto this 

 species has only been known to nest in one locality in the extreme west 

 of the country where it is a regular summer visitant. However, on July 

 3rd, 1924, accompanied by Mr. G. H. Lings and Mr. G, Tomkinson, both 

 well-known English ornithologists, I visited a spot not far from the coast 

 of Co. Donegal, where I had seen a pair of Phalaropes in June, 1916, though 

 on that occasion I had failed to hnd a nest. Great, therefore was our 

 satisfaction when we discovered a pair of birds occupying the same rush- 

 fringed pool on which I had observed them eight years previously. On 

 the present occasion the male showed great excitement, rapidly uttering 

 his sharp notes of alarm, and repeatedly leaving the pool and making 

 short flights over the surrounding marsh. A careful search of the latter 

 at length revealed a nest containing one addled egg, placed in a thin 

 bunch of marsh grass on a tiny hummock at some distance from the pool. 

 Still keeping the birds under observation, in about an hour's time we 

 witnessed the pleasing spectacle of the parents leaving the margin of 

 the pool accompanied by two tiny chicks, not more than a day or two old. 

 There was no evidence of more than one pair, and it appears to me probable 

 that these birds have bred more or less continuously in the locality for 

 several years. 



It is interesting to note that an increasing number of species, whose 

 proper home is in the Far North, now visit Co. Donegal for the purpose of 

 breeding. I need only mention, in addition to the Red-necked Phalarope 

 the Red-throated Diver {Colymbus stellatus), the Fulmar {Fulmarns 

 glacialis), the Eider {Somateria niollissima) , and, in an adjacent county, 

 the Common Scoter [Oedeuiia nigra). 



C. V. Stoney. 



Pereg^rine Falcon breeding on Ireland's Eye. 



On the 28th June of the present year I went to Ireland's Eye with two 

 friends for the day. On landing we flushed a pair of Peregrine Falcons, 

 which were feeding on a Puffin. They were joined shortly afterwards by 

 two others. After traversing the island on the north side, we discovered 

 under a large boulder the remains of a Peregrine's eyrie, inhabited this 

 year, as it contained half an eggshell and a rabbit's head with flesh still 

 on it. I think this might be of interest to some readers, as I have been 

 told that this species has not recently been recorded as breeding on Ireland's 

 Eye. 



, H. Irwin. 



Ross, ^Nlovard, Co. Galwav. 



