248 October, 



NOTES. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Ornithology at the Field Club Conference. 



On reading in the Irish Natiu-alist of September the very interesting 

 account of the Field Club Conference in Sligo, and of the very successful 

 collecting" expeditions round the districts, I was rather surprised at 

 missing from the list of birds met with, several species that have come 

 under my notice and that of my friends when visiting the localities. 

 Crossbills and Siskins were not noticed in their haunts on the fine old 

 fir-trees of Hazelwood near the shore of Lough Gill, and although 

 Common Terns are mentioned as being plentiful on that lake, no mention 

 is made of their island breeding-haunt. Then the regular evening 

 flight of the Woodcock across the lake between the woods of Hazelwood 

 and Omagli does not appear to have been noticed. In the visit to Rosses 

 Point, the breeding haunt of the Lesser Tern on the sandy flat has 

 escaped observation, as well as that on the bare sand of the arm ot 

 Drumcliff" Bay next Rosses Point. Visiting the finely-wooded demesne 

 of L/issadill, the Blackcaps breeding near the pleasure ground have also 

 escaped notice ; while in the visit to Ardtermon and Roughly, the Lesser 

 Terns do not appear to have been seen breeding on the sandy stretch of 

 Brown's Bay ; and although mention is made of collectors working the 

 shores from Roughly along Brown's Bay, strange to say, that great 

 breeding haunt of the Arctic Tern on Ardbolau Island (a few hundred 

 yards from the shore) quite escaped observation. 



The three great breeding grounds of the Arctic Terns on the north- 

 west coast are those on Bartragh Island, Killala Bay, where it is estimated 

 that a thousand pairs, in company with Lesser Terns, breed, and that 

 already mentioned, Ardbolau Island, five hundred pairs; and the greatest 

 of all, Roamsh Island, off the Donegal coast, where it is computed they 

 breed in thousands. 



Robert Warren. 



Moyview, Ballina. 



We think Mr. Warren's criticism a little unreasonable. Our object 

 was to give a brief list of the birds we actually saw during hurried visits 

 to each locality on the programme, and this we did. Considering that 

 we were accompanied by over sixty people, and therefore were debarred 

 from that quiet observation which is a sine qua no7i in ornithologj^ and 

 that the weather conditions then prevailing were (to us) so unfavourable, 

 our list is not a poor one. 



Robert Patterson. 



N. H. Foster. 

 Belfast. 



