The Zoologist— May, 1868. lj 91 



not suffer so much from hunger as from the eold at night, to which it 

 often succumbs. & ' " IC 



the z r s rT t Se r\ to ^ v n- been *™ m enti ^ «°m «■»* *> 



ts Or" hoi M f ,Uiney ' Which " genera11 ^ '«T ba ™ in 



Us Ornithology, was strewed with large flights of these birds. They 



seemed to have forgotten all their lapwing habits, and fed, like the 

 common sand-birds, at the margin of the water. They v e \1 

 tame, but in such bad condition that I did not shoot them 7 



turlew.-On the commencement of hard frost and snow the curlew 

 seeks the sea-coast fields, and often travels great distances id 

 fiequenttng wdd and barren districts, feeding on small snails and 

 worms. I is equally partial at all times to barren sand-hills, feeding 

 i their valleys and on the edges of the little lakes scattered generally 

 among St them : even in these situations, so admirably adapted for the 

 stalker, lt is.next to impossible to get a shot at them, as they place a 

 sentry on a commanding sand-hill near. Many consider it quite a 

 marine bird, like the whimbrel, which I think rarely leaves the sea- 



COclSt. 



£fer<m -Herons seem very disquieted since the frost: I am sure I 

 cannot tell what they live upon ; they, like the other sand-birds, have 

 left the oozy parts of the coast, showing that their food there has left the 

 shallows to avoid the frost. They cannot get much in the rivers, as 

 the trout and eels conceal themselves in the deepest pools, and seldom 

 wander about in frost. Perhaps the following paragraph, from the 

 Tyiawley Herald,' may explain it a little: friends have corroborated 



It ■ 



- The Moors in the West of Ireland.-Sach was the severity of the 

 host and snow that several hares were found dead on the moors and 

 grouse became so tame that they were seen in numbers picking on 

 the manure heaps at the cabin doors on the mountains. They after 

 wards passed in flocks towards the south, and fears are entertained 

 that they have not all returned. Woodcocks, ducks and wild geese 

 went in hundreds to the sea side, where many of them have been shot 

 ine hooded crows were seen to fight each other to death, and the 

 victors to regale themselves on the dead bodies of their foes • and 

 more strange still, herons were found devouring the snipe which were 

 unable to fly. It was well at this time for the feathered tribes that the 

 Habeas Corpus Suspension and Peace Preservation Acts were in 

 force, as otherwise the destruction of game would have been immense." 

 — i yrawley Herald. 



