1 8 OUR IRISH SONG BIRDS. 



alarm, the parents leave their young ones, who crouch 

 low on the ground, silent and motionless, and thus are 

 safe. 



" Thus has nature beautifully supplied these feathered 

 creatures with instinct sufficient to baffle in most cases 

 their natural enemies instinct which is so artfully put 

 in force as to baffle even man himself, gifted as he is 

 with noble reasoning powers, which enable him to be 

 the superior and master of every other living creature." 



I have often thought that it might be possible to take 

 a census of our birds, of course, only very much in the 

 rough ; and I see that the same idea has occurred to 

 ornithologists of much higher pretensions than myself. 

 Would it not be possible, for instance, for a score of 

 observers to listen at a pre-arranged hour to the various 

 songs of birds on a fine spring morning in some Irish 

 county, and then try another in a day or two afterwards, 

 and so on ? In some respects it does not seem to be a 

 much harder thing to do than for astronomers to calcu- 

 late the number of shooting stars in August or Novem- 

 ber. Still, doubtless, there are peculiar difficulties in 

 the matter, and I do not think that there is much pro- 

 bability of its ever being done, unless indeed the fact 

 that few manors will yield to the gun an average of 

 more than one bird to the acre can be taken as a basis. 



The most abundant bird in Ireland is, I think, the 

 Chaffinch ; then come the Sparrow, the Robin, and the 

 Wren. The flocks of Rooks and Starlings which are 

 sometimes seen are, however, enough to upset most of 

 the calculations upon which we had previously relied. 



My kind friend, Rev. F. O. Morris, some time since 

 showed me a letter from Lord Kimberley, in which he 



