NOTES FROM THE COUNTY MAYO. 129 
of thus finding the eggs, and fearful, moreover, of treading on 
them, I withdrew to a hillock about a hundred yards off, and 
watched the female through my field-glass, the male having 
deserted his post when he thought we had left. After a few 
minutes she alighted, and while watching her threading her way 
for about ten yards among the stones, to my delight, four eggs 
came within my field, and in another second she was between 
me and them. LEvyen then, so exactly did both eggs and parent 
resemble their surroundings, it was with difficulty we could see 
the nest, and, even while actually looking at the eggs, it was hard 
to distinguish them from the pebbles and herbage around. ‘The 
nest was composed of white lichen and Dryas-leaves, loosely laid 
together upon a hollow in a tuft of the latter. The eggs were 
rather pointed, and in colour and marking like those of the Long- 
tailed Skua, with the ground-colour less greenish in’ shade. In 
Polaris Bay Dr. Coppinger observed Turnstones frequently in 
July, 1876. 
(To be continued.) 
ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE COUNTY MAYO. 
By Ropert WARREN. 
Tue cold wet summer of 1879 appears to have been,in this 
locality, almost as disastrous to our smaller summer visitants as 
the previous winter was to our residents and winter visitants. 
According to the register of the rainfall for 1879, kept at Markree 
Castle, County Sligo, by Colonel Cooper, there fell during the 
first quarter of the year, 8°73 in.; in the second, 9°61 in.; the 
third, 15°68 in.; and in the fourth, only 5°20 in. This immense 
rainfall, together with the unusually low state of the temperature, 
had, as might be expected, a most depressing and injurious effect 
on many of our summer birds, more especially on the Willow 
Wrens, Whitethroats, Chiffchaffs, and Spotted Flycatchers; so 
much so that I never remember hearing so few of the males 
singing in our plantations and hedgerows ; and it was on very few 
occasions indeed that one heard them singing in as strong and 
joyous a strain as they usually do. 
I did not hear a Willow Wren until the 29th of April, nine 
days later than in 1878, and fourteen days later than in 1877, 
s 
