122 The Irish Nafurah'si. [Maj', 



calling when on the wing so that the air resounded with their 

 wild musical cries, which will always attract the attention of 

 the observer, they are so utterly unlike the calls of any of our 

 native ducks. My next meeting was on the 6th of February, 

 1852, when I saw tw^o small flocks of four and five birds each, 

 feeding in the channel near the Killala bar. On the loth of 

 April a beautiful adult male was seen between Moyview and 

 Bartragh. From that date none were observed until the 29th 

 of March, 1853, when, as I was going to Bartragh, I met a 

 lovely adult pair, male and female, both of which I shot as 

 they flew round my boat. On the 19th of April I shot an 

 immature male near the same place, and on the 25th of same 

 month, as I was walking along the edge of the channel near 

 the M03' bar, I observed a flock of fifteen birds feeding close 

 to the breakers. None were afterwards seen until 1856, when 

 on the 31st of October a large flock of nearly fifty birds were 

 observed feeding in the channel of the Moy, close to the 

 rough water of the bar. For two years after, none came 

 under my observation, until the loth of December, 1858, when 

 I shot an adult female near Bartragh. Karly in January, 

 1859, I shot another fine specimen, a male ; and on the 20th 

 of March I obtained a beautiful adult pair, male and female, 

 as they were diving in the channel close under Moyview. On 

 the 3rd of December, 1861, I shot another old male near 

 Bartragh. From that time I only noted those I shot, for I 

 looked on them as becoming common, to be seen nearly every 

 year, if looked for in their favourite feeding-grounds, near the 

 Moy and Killala bars. After the winter of 1861, my shooting 

 punt being very old and rather unsafe, I did not shoot so 

 much on the estuary as usual, and had not the opportunity of 

 observing these birds in their haunts. But it appears that 

 after 1868, they became verj'- irregular and rare in their visits, 

 and on asking my friend the late Captain Dover, who shot 

 regularly with punt and gun on the river and estuary from 

 1868 to 1876, he said that he very seldom met any during that 

 period, and that when he did, only a pair or a solitarj^ bird 

 appeared. 



In 1874 I again began to shoot regularly with my punt-gun, 

 and have done so every year since, and, to my great surprise, 

 have seldom met Long tailed Ducks; and, as I have noted all 

 I observed, or heard of, the number up to the present is very 



