Clare Island Survey — A ves. 20 5 



Fauna. 



Special attention has been given to the resident land-birds. Barrington 

 took all his Clare Island specimens to South Kensington, where all Patten's 

 skins were also sent, and these were com pared with the series in the Natural 

 History Museum. The result of two and a half days' work was that none 

 of the Clare Island birds showed any distinction from those from other 

 parts of Ireland. The Hedge-Sparrow, Dipper, Wren, and House-Sparrow 

 were gone into at great length. Patten took measurements of his specimens, 

 and compared them with some English, Irish, and Continental skins. 



NOMENCLATUKE. 



The systematic names in this part are those in Howard Saunders's 

 "Manual," 1899. While recognizing that many of these will be superseded 

 under prevailing rules, when the new list shall have been prepared by the 

 Committee appointed by the British Ornithologists' Union in 1911, the 

 subject is in such a state of transition that this objection will probably 

 affect any list yet published, and more than one important scheme has 

 recently appeared. The nomenclature of Saunders is here used, not to 

 maintain it against those who have pursued the subject more recently, but 

 as a help to readers. 



The list of species gives special observations of birds on Clare Island, then 

 treats of Achill and the other islands, and then of the maiuland from Erris 

 Head to Slyne Head, and round the included bays, as well as the Westport 

 district. The status of each species is shown by comparison with other 

 portions of the west coast, chiefly Donegal and Kerry. Observations of the 

 Survey party are always included, but no other sound information on the 

 subject, old or recent, is excluded. 



Lists. 

 In the comparative table of birds of the islands and mainland, separate 

 columns are devoted to those species which breed and those which do not ; 

 but several names occur in both columns where some individuals of a species 

 breed, while many more come to pass the winter. 1 n the second column are 

 included winter visitors, like Fieldfare, Geese, birds on passage as 

 Whimbrel, land-birds which visit the islands after their breeding-season, 

 e.g., Eook, Black-headed Gull, and species which, like Turnstone and Curlew, 

 are found all the year round more or less, chiefly in an immature state. In 

 the third column, headed " Stragglers," are those birds which occur too seldom 

 to class them as regular migrants, though further records may entitle some to 

 be placed in the second column. 



