NOTES FROM MAYO AND SLIGO. 255 
hunting for insects along the sheltered and sunny side of the 
hedges. Chiffchaffs appear more numerous and more generally 
distributed about the neighbourhood this season than usual, and 
I heard several singing in the plantations of Scurmore, a place 
I never knew them to frequent previously. 
The Willow Wrens were neither seen nor heard until the 
13th April, and Swallows on the 18th. Whimbrels were heard 
on the 29th, and became very numerous a few days afterwards, as 
many as thirty birds being occasionally seen together on the 
sands. 
Common Terns appeared on the 2nd May. The Corn Crake 
was heard on the 6th, and the Cuckoo on the 7th. Swifts and 
Spotted Flycatchers were seen on the 9th, but I did not hear a 
Whitethroat until the 12th, though I was carefully watching 
their favourite hedges. 
In contrast to the above-mentioned arrivals, some of our 
winter birds are still remaining. On the 14th May, having gone 
down the river and estuary to Bartragh, I observed over two 
hundred Godwits on the sands, and though I watched them 
carefully through a glass for some time I was unable to perceive 
a red-breasted bird amongst them; but I remarked a few Knots 
scattered amongst the flock. Further down the channel near 
Scurmore I saw thirty-seven Red-breasted Mergansers. Close 
to Bartragh I came across three Red-throated and a Great 
Northern Diver. These Divers looked very handsome in their 
fine summer plumage, and as I had an excellent opportunity for 
observing them, I took plenty of time and enjoyed the sight very 
much, for it is not often one can observe these birds in their 
summer plumage. I took especial care in watching the Great 
Northern Diver, and though I caused him to dive more than 
a score of times I could see nothing unusual in his mode of 
procedure. 
One of the sad effects of the late severe weather in this 
district is the complete extermination of the Song Thrush, and 
stranger still, of the Missel Thrush also. The Song Thrushes 
last summer were just beginning to recruit their losses of 1878-9, 
but now. there is not one to be heard or seen in this neigh- 
bourhood, and from enquiries I have made about the well-wooded 
demesnes near Enniscrone, Ballina, and Killala, I have not been 
able to hear of a bird of either species being heard singing this 
