312 RALLID^E. 



that place (3rd edit. 1829, p. 352), it is said " the earliest time 

 they have been heard calling was the 17th of April and the latest 

 the 14th of August." According to a paragraph in the 'Northern 

 Whig' newspaper of April 16, 1842, " the corncrake was heard 

 calling in the neighbourhood of Carrickfergus on the 8th-inst., 

 being about ten days earlier than heard at any former period in 

 that district." If correct, this must have been an isolated 

 instance, as in the year 1842, the bird was very late in arrival 

 — or in making itself known by calling — in the neighbourhood of 

 Belfast, where, until the 1st of May, I was not aware of its presence. 

 Its non-appearance before May is a rare occurrence : in 1836 it 

 was very late, and in ] 838 later than ever before known, not being- 

 heard until the 6th of May, when numbers appeared all at once. 

 Instead of one or two, as is usual on their first arrival, being 

 heard, not less than ten gave forth their calls at the same time, 

 in the grounds of Port William, on the borders of the bay. 

 Over the north generally they were not quite so late, one having 

 been heard near Downpatrick on the 1st of May, and others 

 on the 4th at the Moyntaghs, bordering Lough Neagh. Ac- 

 cording to dates supplied by my informants, this bird would 

 appear not to arrive so early in the more southern parts of Ire- 

 land as in the northern, an apparent anomaly which possibly 

 may be owing to less attention being paid to the subject there. 

 In the south of Wexford, the dates given for six years are, 

 April 26, 27, 28; May 3, 5, 7* The 30th of April has been 

 noted as the earliest date of arrival in the neighbourhood of 

 Tralee;t the 13th of May as the average time about Killaloe on 

 the Shannon ; it has been remarked as an early instance that the 

 call was heard at Edgeworthtown (co. Longford) on the 3rd of 

 May, 1838.J 



The arrival of the corncrake in the north of Ireland has no 

 connexion with the early or late state of the meadows. I have 

 remarked the bird here when they hardly concealed its body from 

 view, and in other years that it would not appear until two or 

 three weeks after they were ready for its reception. Fields of grain 

 * Mr. Poole. t Mr.'T. F. Neligan. % Rev. T! Knox. 



