VI PREFACE. 



Attractive and varied as are the birds included in the first 

 volume, it does not treat of any one that is sought after by the 

 British sportsman. The present volume, on the contrary, con- 

 tains all those which are the objects of his pursuit, excepting 

 the web-footed species (Anatida). 



Belfast Bay being so frequently mentioned in this volume, it 

 may be proper briefly to state that its length is about twelve 

 miles and a half ;* its breadth, to seven miles below the town, 

 little exceeds three miles in any part ; but thence it gradually 

 expands on either side to the width of six miles and a half at 

 the entrance. The river Lagan, having a considerable volume of 

 water, falls into the bay at Belfast, and the flowing tide ascends 

 it for two miles above the lowest bridge. Within little more than 

 four miles of the town nearly all our grallatorial birds are 

 obtained, three-fifths of the banks of the estuary within that dis- 

 tance being laid bare by every ebbing tide ; — as four-fifths were, 

 previous to the embankment made on each side for railways within 

 the last few years. These banks, excepting on some very limited 

 portions of the Down shore, on winch hard sand prevails, are wholly 

 of a soft oozy nature, on which the grass-wrack (Zostera marina) 

 grows profusely. Prom the shores of the bay below tin's distance 

 (four miles) to its entrance, the tide does not recede very far, and 

 where it does so, banks of sand chiefly prevail, varied in some 

 places by beds of gravel, stones, or rocks. Both sides of the 

 bay are sheltered by ranges of hills, which rise on the western 

 side, at M'Art's Fort, to 1,181 feet, and on the eastern, above 

 Holywood House, to 530 feet in height. The ridge of hill behind 

 Garnerville, over which the wigeon generally, and different 

 species of the grallatorial birds, occasionally fly to the quietude 



* Geographical or " Sea-miles" of Capt. Beeckcy's Chart of Belfast Bay. 



