24 



The Irish Naturalist. January 



Bunting, Wagtails, Yellow Bunting, Greenfinch, Magpie, Lark, 

 &a, would either be absent altogether, or else only a pair or 

 two would be seen. Again, the almost total absence of sandy 

 bays and shingle deprives the Lambay list of all the small wading 

 birds, which frequent such localities, the Ringed Plover only 

 having been seen in winter occasionally, and a flock of Turn- 

 stones once, in December. 



At the same time the position of the island, lying as it seems 

 to do in the track of migrating small birds, brings a variety and 

 charm of its own. For example, on April 14th, 1906, Nevin 

 Foster and I noted one Willow Wren hopping silently among 

 low gorse — the only one we saw that day. But on going out 

 early the following morning we found innumerable Willow 

 Wrens evidently just arrived ; hundreds of them swarmed in the 

 lane, in the plantation, in the garden, and along the old hedge 

 that runs south from the garden wall ; every sheltered, sunny 

 corner was full of Willow Wrens, all quite silent and feeding 

 eagerly and hungrily. By the afternoon of this day (15th) they 

 had spread all over the island, as we found them near Lambay 

 Head. The next day (16th) they had almost all gone on, and 

 the few that were left were singing lustily, and had evidently 

 satisfied their hunger. In October large irruptions of Black- 

 birds can be observed, while snow storms such as were experienced 

 the last week of December, 1906, have the effect of sending 

 large quantities of Starlings, Blackbirds, Rooks, Robins, Wrens, 

 Larks, Thrushes, &c., and many Snipe, Teal, Lapwings, and 

 Redwings over from the mainland to the milder climate of 

 Lambay. 



What the island may lack in the number of land-birds is 



amply compensated for by the quantity and variety of the 



sea-birds, which in summer crowd the ledges of the cliffs on all 



sides except the western. It is a wonderful experience to be 



rowed slowly round the island on a calm day in June, when 



one is almost deafened by the cries of the birds disturbed in 



their parental duties, and sea and sk}' are thick with white gulls, 



black cormorants, and black and white auks, flying hither and 



thither in seeming confusion and alarm. Or when walking along 



the cliffs in early summer one is surrounded by a halo of Herring 



Gulls, croaking and laughing overhead, while Pufhns dart out 



of unnoticed burrows at one's feet, and clouds of silvery and 



dove-like Kittiwakes dash from little rocky creeks, repeating 



