276 Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 



Late in April in the present year I saw the skylark about 

 Navarino, and at the end of the following month observed it 

 near Smyrna. 



The Woodlark, Alauda arborea, Linn., 



Is one of those unobtrusive species which is little known 

 except to the lover of nature, and by him perhaps valued the 

 more on that account. In flocks it is not at all to be met 

 with, like the skylark. It is so very choice in the place of 

 its abode as to be quite a local species, and in the counties of 

 Down and Antrim frequents districts where the soil is warm, 

 the country well cultivated and wooded, or scenery, which, 

 like its song, is of a sweet, soft character; — cold clay districts, 

 though equally improved and sheltered, cannot, so far as 

 known to me, claim it for a tenant. In its favourite localities 

 here, the Woodlark may be heard singing almost daily, and 

 chiefly in the morning from September to June. 



This species is enumerated as one of the birds of Dublin 

 in Rutty's Natural History of that county, and has a similar 

 place in Smith's ' History of Cork.' In the latter county, Mr. 

 R. Ball informs me that it is not unfrequent, and being much 

 prized for its song, is greatly sought after by bird-catchers. 

 A friend living near Belfast kept woodlarks for a year or more 

 in his aviary in company with other birds, but they never sang. 



The Snow-Bunting, Emberiza nivalis, Linn, (genus Plec- 

 trophanes, Meyer.), 



Is a regular autumnal migrant to the more northern parts of 

 Ireland. Towards the south it becomes gradually scarcer, 

 and in the extreme portions of that quarter, although the 

 highest mountains in the island are situated there, it can only 

 be called a rare and occasional visitant*. Its numbers are 

 stated similarly to decrease from the north to the south of 

 England. The island of Achil should perhaps, from its far 

 western position, be particularized as being regularly visited 

 by this bird — a fact communicated by my friend W. R.Wilde, 



the fair-day, and the niaiket full of cattle : go and purchase the best cow 

 there, and 1 shall pay for her:' but Iluggart still declined, and kept his 

 lark." 



* In a catalogue of the birds of the south favoured me by Dr. Harvey of 

 Cork, the snow-bunting is noticed merely as having been met with at Duns- 

 combe Wood, near that city. Dr. Burkitt, of Waterford, in a list of the na- 

 tive birds known to him obligingly sent tome since this paper went to press, 

 notices it only as shot in the neighbourhood of that city in January 1832. 

 To Mr. T. F. Neligan of Tralee, it was unknown as a bird of that quarter 

 in 18.'57, but Mr. Wm. Andrews of Dublin informs me that specimens were 

 obtained near Dingle during the last winter, 184C-41, 



