64 The Irish Naturalist [ March, 



The rest of my material consisted of two or three species 

 new to science, and these will be described elsewhere. In the 

 afternoon I visited the Botanic Gardens in the hope of 

 obtaining some specimens of earthworms. The soil however 

 was too dry, and though I might have been able to discover 

 something of interest if I had been guided to the right spots, 

 the Curator was not at hand just at the time, and the workmen 

 were of course unable to help me. I found also at Mr. Bigger's 

 garden in the evening the same absence of specimens owing 

 to the continued drought. 



THE DISTRIBUTION OF BIRDS BREEDING IN 



IRELAND. 



BY R. J. USSHER. 



In 1894, under the invaluable guidance of the late Mr. A. 

 G. More, I presented a report,^ on the above subject to the 

 Royal Irish Academy ; since then, personal explorations as 

 well as the kind help of my correspondents have added new 

 facts, and it may be well to give to the readers of the Irish 

 Naturalist in a popular form the results I have arrived at up 

 to this, in the hope that some of them may aid me further to 

 fill up gaps in my information. 



To make these statistics more readable I have grouped the 

 species, selecting in the first case all birds that breed through^ 

 out the whole or nearly the whole of Ireland, and having 

 so disposed of these commoner species, I have attempted to 

 present a view of the distribution of the rest according to the 

 nature of their haunts, which restrict them to certain counties, 

 or where this is unsuitable, then on some other basis of 

 arrangement. 



I. — Breeding Birds generai^ly distributed. 



For convenience I place in the first group sixty-seven 

 species which I have ascertained to breed in every county 

 in Ireland, except where stated. I include the Quail, as it 



^ Proceedings R.I.A, 3rd Series, vol. iii., No. 3. 



