24 Alexander Goodman More. [i85i 



confined in Ireland to the county Galway, and the "Copper 

 Underwing" (Pyramidea) seems to be very local in Ireland, 

 but so abounded at Castle Taylor as to be quite a pest at 

 the sugar. 



It was in the June of this year that, while staying a few 

 days with friends in the county Mayo, he first visited 

 Lough Carra. It was the nesting season of the Terns, and 

 among them he found a few Arctic Terns, a species whose 

 nesting by fresh water had not been previously noticed in 

 Britain. Indeed, the pages of volume iii. of Thompson's 

 " Natural History of Ireland," in which it is described as 

 seeming to select marine stations only, were at that time 

 passing through the press. The fact of the birds breeding 

 by Lough Carra was communicated by Mr. More to the 

 "Zoologist" nine years later (vol. xviii., p. 6891). From a 

 paper contributed by Mr. R. Warren to the" Irish Natural- 

 ist " for June, 1896, it appears that Arctic Terns still nest 

 beside Lough Carra. Their only other nesting-ground 

 hitherto discovered inland in Ireland seems to be an island 

 in Lough Mask. 



An expedition into the Connemara mountains in the 

 company of his father and Mr. Walter Shawe-Taylor was 

 made in- August. Here, amid the delights of grouse- 

 shooting, he enjoyed also gathering the St. Dabeoc's 

 heath (white as well as purple), and notes having once 

 seen three Eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla) over the lake at 

 Kylemore. The Hen Harrier, " common on all the hills," 

 was "often seen quartering the ground, flying swiftly 

 along quite close to it," in marked contrast to the Raven, 

 also " not uncommon ; flight heavy ; fond of sailing round 

 observing the ground below." One night, on the road 

 between Galway and Oughterard, he saw something shin- 

 ing which he took for a glow-worm, " the only one I have 

 seen in Ireland." As the same mistake has been often 

 made, and no real Irish glow-worm has ever been found, it 

 may be well to add that there is in the margin of this page 

 of his journal a subsequent pencilled annotation : " some 

 other luminous insect/' 



Towards the end of September the long visit came to 

 an end, and sugaring and botany for the season were over. 



