“221 
THE BIRDS OF LONAN, ISLE OF MAN. 
P. RALFE. 
Tue following notes which, during a two years’ residence at Laxey, 
I have been able to gather, may be of interest as imperfectly 
illustrating the ornithology of one of the wilder and less cultured 
as also the more picturesque and interesting) of Manx districts. 
Lonan consists of the Laxey valley, plus an additional strip of land 
along the coast to the southward, between the mouths of the Laxey 
and Groudle streams. The Laxey Glen is comparatively broad, 
forking as it recedes into many branches, and draining a mass of 
upland, cultivated often to a height of 700 or 800 feet, above which 
the mountain pastures and heathlands rise to a number of summits 
from 1,000 to 2,000 feet above sea level, and forming the watershed 
between this and other glens. The coast is rock-bound (one beach 
of hard sand intervening at Old Laxey where the glen opens to the 
sea) and offers little attraction for shore-birds. 
As a rule there is not much wood, and small birds are few both 
in species and individuals; the Park gardens at Laxey, with the 
beautiful and fragrant fir woods overhanging them, are an exception 
to the general bareness, and song birds are very numerous there. 
Narrow strips of low wood, with pretty half-wild copses, occur also 
along the branches of Glenroy, the southern branch of the main 
glen, and in a few other places. The higher uplands, though 
sometimes steep, show hardly any cliff; they are generally very devoid 
of life at all seasons. 
Among Manx birds which do not appear to breed at all in the 
district are the Swift and Sand-Martin, neither numerous in the 
Island generally, and Swallows are not abundant. I have never met 
with the Waterhen, but though the country is very lacking in suitable 
localities for it, it is hard to believe that it is altogether absent. Of 
small birds the Yellow-Hammer and Chaffinch are predominant ; 
of large, the Magpie and Herring Gull. 
Below I give the complete list of birds identified as having 
Occurred in the district, which for the purpose of this paper includes 
the parish of Lonan. Notes have been added where anything 
Seemed worthy of remark. : 
_ An asterisk denotes the breeding of the species so marked in the 
ict. The queries inserted indicate doubt as to whether the bird 
_ breeds, 
“Missel Thrush. Turdus viscivorus. 
Song Thrush. Turdus musicus. 
Redwing. Turdus iliacus. 
Rigg Ree 
July 1897. 
