UssHER — Report on the Breeding-range of Birds in Ireland. 413 



Dafila acuta (L.), Pintail. — Sir E. Payne Gallwey mentions Lord 

 Castletown's duck-preserves near Abbeyleix, in Queen's County, as a 

 breeding locality, and adds that he has seen female Pintails with 

 young broods on Loughs Mask and Corrib, and Pintails in summer on 

 Lough Inagh, Connemara. Lord Castletown, who has preserved the 

 egg taken by him from a Pintail's nest, informs us that the nest was 

 only found once on his property, near Granston, Queen's County, many 

 years ago, and we have no recent evidence of the Pintail breeding in 

 Ireland. 



Qiuerquedula creeca (L.), Teal. — Reported to breed in every 

 county in Ireland except Dublin and Carlow. JN'ext to the Wild Duck 

 it is the commonest species of the family breeding in Ireland. 



Mareca penelope (L.), Wigeon. — Lord Caledon states that he 

 has seen the old birds in summer, at Caledon, Co. Tyrone. A pair of 

 Wigeon were seen in June, 1893, on Lough Allen, in Leitrim [Irish 

 Naturalist, 1893, p. 269). 



Fuligula ferina (L.), Pochard. — Since the publication of the 

 Fowler in Ireland, 1882, the Pochard has been reported as breeding 

 in Galway, Roscommon, Westmeath, Meath, and Tipperary, and some 

 probability attaches to several of these instances ; but we still await 

 complete proof of the Pochard breeding in Ireland. 



Fuligula cristata (Leach), Tufted Duck. — Sir R. Payne Gallwey 

 gave evidence of this species breeding on Lough ISTeagh, Lough Beg, 

 the Shannon lakes, and in Monaghan. It breeds now in Fermanagh, 

 Roscommon, and Sligo, and probably also on lakes in Longford and 

 Westmeath, where it is met with in June {Irish Naturalist, 1893, 

 p. 270). Its first appearance and increase in the breeding season 

 on Lough Erne has been noticed by Mr. J. C. Bloomfield of Castle 

 Caldwell. 



Mergus serrator, L., Red-breasted Merganser. — Breeds, often in 

 considerable numbers, chiefly on islands in lakes and estuaries, in 

 Donegal, Down, Fermanagh, Westmeath, Louth, Tipperary, Kerry, 

 Clare, Galway, Roscommon, Mayo, Sligo, and Leitrim. ISText to the 

 Wild Duck and Teal, this is the commonest breeding duck in Ireland. 



Of the one hundred and thirty-four species enumerated in the 

 above report, one hundred and twenty-eight are known, or reasonably 

 believed, to breed at present ; five are shown to have bred, but their 

 breeding at the present day has become a matter of doubt, viz. Buz- 

 zard, Carrion Crow, Roseate Tern, Pintail, and Wigeon ; while one, 

 the Bittern, is known to have lecome extinct as a breeding species. 



