Clare Island Survey — Aves. 20 15 



Ligurinus chloris (Linn.). Greenfinch.— Winter visitor to Clare Island, 

 whence Barrington got specimens in December and January, and another 

 taken on Black Eock (Mayo) in November. Like the Chaffinch, this 

 species resorts to western islands in company with others in very cold 

 weather, though the notices of it are fewer than of the Chaffinch in the 

 Migration Reports. Foster notices it from Louisburgh, and it is a 

 common breeding bird near Westport (Good). Pike, of A chill, said, 

 " Large flocks of various birds arrive about the first week in November, 

 and remain until March . . . Green Linnets, Grey do., Chaffinches, &c." 

 In 1891, Sheridan wrote : " It now remains and breeds." It is gregarious 

 in winter at Killybegs (A. Brooke), and has been seen west of Dingle at 

 that season (Patten). 



Coccosthraustes vulgaris, Pallas. Hawfinch. — Pare straggler to the west coast. 

 Was obtained on A chill by Pike in 1874, and by Sheridan in 1897. 

 Wallace records it once from Belmullet, and Warren once from near 

 Ballina in 1859. It has been obtained a very few times in Donegal, 

 Galway, and Kerry. 



Carduelis elegans, Steph. Goldfinch. — Occasional winter visitor in small 

 numbers to Clare Island, A chill, and the Mullet ; a resident breeding 

 bird about Westport, where Good has repeatedly seen flocks of h'fty or 

 sixty. It is resident in many bare, remote districts near the western 

 coasts, as in western Donegal, where in places it is the only breeding 

 finch, nesting even in gooseberry-bushes and hedges of thorn and elder. 

 Patten saw five on 29th December near Dingle. ] n his " Migration of 

 Birds," p. 130, Barrington writes : — " On the west coast the records are 

 comparatively numerous, but with few exceptions they are from islands 

 where the Goldfinch breeds — Aranmore and Valencia." 



Passer domesticus (Linn.). House Sparrow. — Common resident, nesting in 

 the thatched roofs and Grania Uaile's Castle, Clare 1 sland. Of a series of 

 birds taken there Patten remarks that the feet are more slender and the 

 beak not so heavy as in Sheffield Sparrows, the plumage- markings being 

 very rich and distinct in the male. Sparrows are common about Louis- 

 burgh and on Achill, numerous about Westport, Ballina, and other 

 towns, and around the thatched cottages of the western coasts and 

 islands. A colony breed on the ivy-covered cliff over Inishturk harbour. 

 They occur on Inishbofin, the Aran Islands, and Aranmore, west of 

 Dingle, and on Dursey Island. 



Passer montanus (Linn.). Tree-Sparrow.— Breeds at a few points on the 

 coasts of Londonderry, Donegal, and North Mayo (where it now has 



