[ 67 ] 

 AMONG THE BIRDS ON STRANGFORD LOUGH. 



BY ROBERT PATTERSON. 



STRANGFORD LouGH anciently I,ough Cuan, is an arm of tlic 

 sea some twenty-five miles in length by fonr in breadth, sitn- 

 ated in Co. Down. It is generally shallow, and scattered over 

 its surface are a large number of small islands— 366, so say 

 the country-folk ; one for every day of the year and two for 

 Easter Sunday. According to the " Annals of the Four 

 Masters," Lough Cuan was formed in the year of the world 

 2546 (1654 B.C.) when there occurred ''an inundation of the 

 sea over the land at Brena, which was the seventh lake- 

 eruption that occurred in the time of Parthalon, and this is 

 named lyOch Cuan ;" but the geologist sees in the low rounded 

 hills of polished and ice-ground rocks that fringe the lough- 

 shores, and in other local evidences of intense glaciation, a 

 different origin of this shallow, island-studded inland sea. 



Strangford Lough is a capital place for the naturalist in sum- 

 mer, as it is for the sportsman in winter. In the summer of 

 1890 I spent two daj^s there with my cousin, Mr R. Lloyd 

 Praeger, and our friend Mr. A. J. Collins, and the present 

 sketch is compiled from our note books ; our chief object was 

 to investigate the breeding birds of the Lough. 



We started on June 21st in an early train to Newtownards, 

 armed with provisions for two days, extra rugs, to enable us 

 to sleep on the islands if weather was vSuitable, boxes, vas- 

 culums, field glasses, etc. We breakfasted at Newtownards, 

 and drove to Cunningburn, a small village about three miles 

 down the lough, where we found our boatman, William 

 Armour, waiting for us, and were on the water by 11 o'clock. 

 Just as we started a Sheldrake {Tadorna cornutd) flew past at 

 some little distance. On asking the boatman if Sheldrakes 

 bred there, he replied that he believed they did, but lower 

 down the lough. He stated that a pair or two were always to 

 be seen in summer, and that he could get me one at any time, 

 which statement was amply proved about a week later by the 

 arrival in Belfast of a fine male Sheldrake in breeding plumage, 

 and quite uninjured. The weather looked unsettled, and rain 

 began to fall as we sailed down to Long Island and Boretree 

 Island. As we approached, clouds of Terns rose from tlie 



