The Zoologist— March, 1867. 009 



A Birds nesting Trip to the North of Ireland. 

 By Howard Saunders, Esq., F.Z.S. 



"There must still be eagles in Ireland; they can scarcely have 

 become extinct since Thompson's lime," exclaimed a friend, as we 

 rose from marking off on the map the breeding-places specified in the 

 ' Birds of Ireland.' So after some discussion we agreed to make a tour 

 of inspection the following April, and judge for ourselves. But, alas! 

 the course of birdsnesting seldom runs altogether smooth ; May had 

 come before I could leave town, and I was then obliged to give up the 

 exploration of what I imagine to be some of the best localities, and 

 respecting which I hope to be able to give further particulars next 

 year. 



Having been joined at Omagh by my friend R., an enthusiastic 

 young Irishman on his first collecting trip, I proceeded to make 

 diligent inquiries from a correspondent in the town, who had twice 

 forwarded me a pair of richly marked golden eagle's eggs "in the 

 yelk." I was sorry to learn that the individual who used to obtain the 

 eggs, and who was known as the " antiquity," i. e. antiquary, was 

 lately dead, and that the knowledge of the eyrie had been confined to 

 himself and a herd who used to assist him, whose very name was 

 unknown. Doubtless the eagles were still breeding in their old haunts, 

 but the amount of ground to be gone over was so vast, and the chance 

 of success so problematical, that after carefully weighing the pros and 

 cons of the matter, we decided to push on at once for the Horn of 

 Donegal, where, in Thompson's time, at least two pairs of the sea 

 eagle used to breed, besides the golden eagle in the mountains 

 inland. 



Arrived at Dunfanaghy, the nearest village to Horn Head, we lost 

 no time in securing the services of an experienced old " duller," the 

 local name for a fowler who "dulls" or catches sea-birds by slipping 

 a horse-hair noose fastened to a long rod over their heads, as they sit 

 on the ledges. He assured us that we should certainly get the "game- 

 hawk," as the peregrine falcon is termed, but as for eagles he shook 

 his head. There was, he believed, a pair or two of the mountain 

 eagle, up by Muckish and Errigal, and the sea eagle was not unfre- 

 quently to be seen in the winter, but they had not bred in their old 

 quarters for four or five years ; he could only show us where the nest 

 used to be. 



SECOND SERIES — VOL. II. M 



