^ The Irish Naturalist. [Jan. 



so small an island it must be difficult to keep the peace. It is 

 the home of a good many Rabbits and Rock Doves, and they, 

 no doubt, form good food for the Peregine. 



At this part of the coast, and north as far as Clare Island I 

 think, there are no convenient nesting-ledges for Guillemots 

 and Razorbills, consequently one misses these birds; but 

 their genus is represented by the Black Guillemot, which is very 

 fairly numerous. On both of these islands (High and Cruagh) 

 I found a great number of dead birds. They chiefly consisted 

 of Starlings, but there were also a good many Snipe and a few 

 Curlew. Would the exceptional gales and hard weather of 

 last winter account for this ? Or may the birds have been 

 driven out to the west by one of those inexplicable eruptive 

 migration fevers only to return and die on the nearest land ? 

 On some of the low flat islands ofi" Renvyle (my next stopping 

 place), the Black Guillemots seemed to be laying their eggs 

 under the large boulders scattered about. I saw several at 

 different times fly out from amongst them, but could not reach 

 the eggs. Another curious nesting habit I noted was, that 

 the Oyster-catchers, which were numerous, invariably nested 

 on the rocks or turf even on islands where there was shingle 

 in every v/ay suitable for them. This fact would seem to 

 show that rock and not shingle is their original, or at all events 

 their favourite nesting site, and yet one never finds their eggs 

 without pebbles or some such substitute as rabbits' excrement, 

 heads of Sea Campion, shells, or bits of wood underneath them. 

 Terns, both Common and Arctic, were just commencing to lay 

 on the lowest and smallest of the islands. It might be 

 mentioned that off the west coast of Scotland, as here, the Terns 

 seem to prefer the low islands for nesting. Cormorants and 

 Shags, both young and old, were swarming everywhere. 



On Inishturk I came across a large colony of Sparrows 

 breeding in an ivy-covered cliff by the harbour. Had it not 

 been so far west one would have expected these to have h^^nPasser 

 viontanus, but they were all the homely domesticus, at least as 

 far as I could see. It seems curious that there should be such 

 a large colony of House Sparrows on this barren island con- 

 taining but a score or so of houses, while throughout Con- 

 nemara it is a comparatively uncommon bird. Indeed I saw 

 more Sparrows in a day on Inishturk than I did in a fortnight 

 in the rest of Connemara. On Inishturk the Wheatear and 



