246 The Irish Naturalist. October, 



INCREASE IN THE NUMBERS OF BREEDING 

 BIRDS IN MAYO AND SUGO. 



BY ROBERT WARRKN. 



A FEW notes on the great increase that has taken place within 

 the last few years in numbers of some breeding birds in this 

 district may be of interest to Irish ornithologists, for instance — 

 Starlings, Rooks, Blackbirds, Shoveller Ducks, Shelldrakes, 

 Common Gulls, and Arctic and Lesser Terns. The Starlings, 

 though exceedingly numerous in winter, were very scarce in 

 summer up to fifteen or twenty years ago, and it was most 

 unusual to see even a pair or two flying about the district, and 

 the only breeding-places I was then aware of were holes in 

 some old trees in Castletown demesne ; but since then the 

 birds have spread all about the country, breeding in holes, in 

 the gables and eaves of cottages and outhouses, and some- 

 times becoming quite a nuisance from the noise and dirt 

 created by the j^oung birds. To give some idea of their 

 numbers, I may mention that along a stretch of about tw^o 

 miles of the road between Ballina and Enniscrone, twelve or 

 fifteen pairs are found breeding — one pair at Moyfort, two 

 pairs at Glen Lodge, two pairs at Upper Castlecomer, two pairs 

 at Lower Castlecomer, a pair at Killanly Glebe, two pairs at 

 Moyview, and two or three pairs at Scurmore, all in the Co. 

 Sligo ; then to cross the River Moy over to the Co. Mayo, we 

 find that even on the Island of Bartragh several pairs breed, 

 and one pair every season brings up two broods in a hole 

 under the ridge tiles on Bartragh House, and destroys a great 

 deal of small fruit in the Bartragh garden. 



The Rooks have increased very much in this neighbour- 

 hood, and do an immense amount of damage to the farmers' 

 corn and potatoes, attacking the latter as soon as the shoots 

 appear on the surface of the ground, and, digging down to the 

 sets, carry them off to eat at their leisure ; then, again, when 

 the young tubers are formed, a second attack begins, and great 

 damage is done, more especially to early potatoes, which are 

 more exposed to their attacks, as their foliage is not so dense 

 as that of later kinds. To give one instance of the rapid in- 

 crease of Rooks, I may state that up to 1880 no Rooks built 

 here at Moyview, but now we have a rookery numbering a 



