3IO The Irish Naftiralist. [Dec, 



we leave Killybegs on Wednesday night. At present we are 

 still on Congested District Board business, working northward 

 towards the rendezvous. 



3.15 P.M. Off Roundstonk.— Green and Captain Quirk 

 spent the morning checking their sextants. We cast anchor 

 in Kilronan Bay, Aran, at 12.15. Green, jun., and I rowed 

 Father Colgan ashore in the dinghy, and he entertained us 

 in his neat little cottage. Then called on Mrs. O'Brien, where 

 Fitzgerald, 1 Christen, - and I stayed during our delightful visit 

 to Aran last July. Got a supply of coarse brown paper, in 

 case I collect any plants. Then to the police station next 

 door, to enquire for the tame Choughs. A constable brought 

 us into the yard, where they have a lovely clutch of five young 

 ones, three weeks old, which made deafening demands for 

 food in a manner the reverse of shy. We found that all 

 the birds they had last year, which caused us such amusement 

 by their antics and perfect tameness, are gone — some of them 

 to the Dublin Zoo — with the exception of Polly, an old bird 

 who is quite a local celebrit3^ She makes little tours on her 

 own account, as far even as the South Island, especially when 

 the police go there, and makes herself at hom.e in the cabin 

 or engine-room of ever}^ ship that calls at Kilronan. The 

 siren soon summoned us aboard again, where we found that a 

 cargo of salted ling had been taken aboard, for conveyance 

 to the curing station at Teelin. Off again, and had lunch — 

 our first meal on board. Company — Captain Quirk, Green, 

 sen. and jun., Mr. Shimmin, Congested District Board fishery 

 manager, and self. Soon we passed under the old watch- 

 tower on Golam Head, and threaded our way among the islands 

 and rocks that lie between that and Roundstone. Wind gone 

 altogether, and only a gentle long roll— so calm that the 

 peasants were out in their boats by dozens, cutting weed for 

 kelp-burning from the man}' sunken reefs. We passed within 

 a couple of hundred yards of Inismacdara, and had a pretty 

 view of the primitive little church which we visited two 

 months ago. The serrated ridge of XTrrisbeg lay eight miles 

 to the northward, and we could see the houses of Round- 

 stone nestling at its base. Next we passed close to the sea- 

 ward face of Croaghnakeela or Deer Island. It was a pretty 



' Prof. G. F. Fitzgerald, D.Sc, F.R.S. 

 ' Kodolphe Christen, Artist, 



