I902. Warren. — Increase in Breeding Birds^ Mayo df Sligo- 247 



couple of hundred nests. The beginning was very small, and 

 commenced by a solitary pair. During the severe winter of 

 1 878-1 879 a number of Rooks frequented the farmyard, feed- 

 ing with the pigs and fowl ; then when the fair spring weather 

 set in, most of them went off to their rookeries, but two pairs 

 of weakly birds remained throughout the summer, still fre- 

 quenting the farmj^ard, and also during the winter of 1879. 

 Then when spring returned, the two pairs began building in 

 old Magpies' nests in the trees near the yard ; but after a time 

 one pair deserted their nest and went away, but the other 

 remained, and reared a brood of young ones. Next spring 

 three pairs of Rooks had nests, and since then, year by year, 

 the number of building birds have steadily increased, until, as 

 I have already observed, at least 200 nests can be counted on 

 the trees round the yard and house. 



The Blackbirds have also increased until they have become 

 a perfect nuisance from the damage they do the small fruit in 

 the gardens, and also injure the thatched roofs of the cottages 

 by digging holes in search of worms and grubs in the decayed 

 portions of the roofs ; and the amount of injury a couple of 

 pair of Blackbirds will do to the roof of a cottage must be seen 

 to be believed. 



The Shoveller Duck was very scarce some few years ago, 

 and when a specimen was shot on the lakes or estuar}^ it was 

 looked on quite as a rarit}^ but now they breed on many of the 

 North Mayo lakes — on Loughs Conn, Lisduoge, Alick or Car- 

 ramore, and Rathroeen, all situated within a three-mile 

 radius of Ballina. Last June Mr. G. Scroope, of Ballina, found 

 four or five nests with eggs on a small swampy bay on Lough 

 Conn, and saw seven or eight old birds resting on the water 

 close b3^ Some four or five years ago, when the late Mr. V. 

 Jackson was flapper-shooting on the little lough at Carramore, 

 out of six or seven brace of flappers obtained that day, two 

 and a half brace were Shovellers. 



Shelldrakes have also increased, and three or four pairs 

 breed on the Bartragh sand-hills, and, perhaps, two pairs on 

 those of Enniscrone across the Moy, while a pair generally 

 breed in the rabbit-holes in one of my fields here at Moyview. 

 In the summer of 1900 a pair brought out a clutch of fourteen 

 young birds. They were constantl}^ seen along the shore here 



