XVI PREFACE. 



But on this subject the following information on species, at 

 particular periods, is given, that we may judge of the changes 

 which have taken place, either as to their decrease or increase. 

 Those which have decreased in number shall first be considered. 

 According to the Topographia Hibernise of Giraldus de Barri 

 (Cambrensis), written towards the end of the 12th century, 

 the crane was very common in Ireland, about a hundred being 

 sometimes seen in a flock. If the bird meant by that author 

 were the true crane (Grus cinerea), and not the heron [Ardea 

 cinerea), commonly called by that name in Ireland to the present 

 day, the stately bird would seem to have been once as common 

 here, as it was, in early times, in England. The latest published 

 record of its occurrence in this island known to me, is that of 

 Smith, who, in his Histories of Waterford (1745) and Cork 

 (1749), remarks, that a few were seen in those counties during 

 the great frost of 1739. They are mentioned as birds of passage, 

 which do not breed ; and in the former work are said not to have 

 been seen " since or before in any person's memory." Two 

 instances of the occurrence of single individuals in Ireland in the 

 present century will be found noticed under the species in the 

 present work. That noble bird, the cock of the wood {Tetrao 

 urogallus), was plentiful throughout the native forests of Ireland, 

 but has long since become extinct, the last bird having been 

 killed about a century since. The great bustard [Otis tarda), 

 too, an inhabitant of the open plain, disappeared about the same 

 period. 



In " A Brife description of Ireland made in this yeere 1589, 

 by Robert Payne," it is stated : — " There be great store of wild 

 swannes, * * * much more plentiful than in England." 

 Harris, in his History of the County of Down published in 1744, 

 remarks of the wild swan {Cyijnus ferns) : — " Great numbers of 



