38 The Irish Naturalist, [ March, 1896, 



BIRDS. 



Birds of Conncmara. — In Mr. Witlierby's account of Connemara 

 birds in the January issue of the Irish Naturalist\i^ states that " a number 

 of Dunlin, some of which were singing beautifully, were flying about 

 in small flocks" on Lough Corrib. I should like to ask Mr. Witherby 

 whether it was beyond doubt the Dunlin {Tringa alpina) that he refers 

 to, and not the Ringed Plover {yEgialilis hiaticiild), which is locally called 

 the Dunlin in some parts of England. The islands of Lough Corrib are 

 hardly the kind of habitat for the Dunlin during the nesting season. 

 Several years ago I spent two days on Lough Corrib and its islands for 

 ornithological purposes at the middle of May, and I saw no Dunlins ; 

 but on every island that had any shinglj' shore — and I landed on about 

 sixteen or eighteen such — there was at least one pair of Ringed Plovers. 

 Mr. Witherby's other observations relating to Lough Corrib coincide 

 with mine to a remarkable degree ; and as the Ringed Plover is fairly 

 plentiful on the islands during the nesting season he can hardly have 

 failed to observe it, as he has noted nearly all the other birds to be expected ; 

 but he makes no mention whatever of it. Many who know the pleasing 

 whistling notes of the Ringed Plover will probably agree that " singing 

 beautifully" seems a not inappropriate description of them. Altogether 

 it rather looks as though it was the Ringed Plover Mr. Witherby re- 

 ferred to, not the Dunlin ; but should it prove to be the latter, it would 

 of course be an occurrence of interest to Irish ornithologists. 



Mr. Witherby also states that " on some of the low flat islands of 

 Renvyle the Black Guillemots seemed to be laying their eggs under the 

 large boulders scattered about," and that he *' saw several at different 

 times fly out from amongst them, but could not reach their eggs." It 

 is well known that various birds occasionally nest in situations very 

 different from the sites usually chosen ; and it would be interesting to 

 know whether Black Guillemots were really nesting in the situation 

 described. Can Mr- Witherby or anyone else throw further light on the 

 question.? Mr, Witherby says: ''Another curious nesting habit I 

 noted was, that the Oystercatchers, which were numerous, invariably 

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

 every way suitable for them." Perhaps West of Ireland Oystercatchers 

 may have found that it is not always safe to nest on the vShingle within 

 possible reach of an unusually high Atlantic wave, and have conse- 

 quently gone to higher and safer situations. At all events the site 

 mentioned hardly seems an unusual one with these birds in the West of 

 Ireland. In 1894, during the first week of July, on Inishkeeragh — the 

 island between North Inishkea and Inishgloria — off the west coast of 

 Co. Mayo, I found two Oystercatchers' nests containing young birds on 

 small patches of turf among the rocks, near where Arctic Terns were 

 nesting- I identified the nests and young as Oystercatchers by the 

 broken fragments of ^%% shells about the nests. 



J. E. Pai,me;r, Dublin, 



^9 



