36 ANATID.E. 



Wild geese are not seen about Belfast flying northward to- 

 wards tlicir breeding haunts in spring, as they are southward, in 

 autumn and winter, toward their quarters for the latter season. 

 Their line of flight, like that of most other migratory birds appearing 

 in the north of Ireland, is quite different according as they proceed 

 north or south. 



The bean goose frequents annually, in winter, the bogs about 

 Dromedaragh and Clough, county of Antrim, from ten to twenty 

 birds usually keeping together in flocks. Their appearing much 

 on wing is considered to foretell an approaching storm long before 

 it is denoted by any other means. Over the wilder and more humid 

 l)arts of the northern counties generally, the species is found during 

 winter. 



From an old man, one of the aborigines of the wild moun- 

 tainous district of Monterlony, county of Tyrone, I have heard 

 of various sporting and poaching exploits of the peasantry there, 

 one of which was the practice of going out to the bogs in foggy, 

 or, still better, snowy winter nights, to catch wild geese. The 

 parties carried with them blazing torches of bog-fir, and the geese, 

 attracted by the light, flew dhectly to it and were captured. 



A few years previous to 1842 (when the fact was communicated 

 to me) , a flock of from two to three dozen wild geese, believed to 

 be of this species, on a snowy winter evening, about seven o'clock, 

 flew towards a gas-lamp in Cecil-street, Limerick, around which a 

 few of them were knocked down and captured.* In foggy nights I 

 have heard godwits and other grallatorial birds flying through the 

 glare of gas-light above Belfast for hours, apparently not knowing 

 whither to go, and uttering their loudest cries all the time. 



It is well known that migratory and other birds often fly 

 towards the lanterns of lighthouses, and are killed by striking 

 against them. A newspaper paragraph, headed. Birds taken at a 

 ligJdhouse in hazy weather, informs us that — " It is very common 

 for birds to flock about sea-lights at night, in certain states of the 

 weather ; but we have not met with an occurrence to the same ex- 

 tent as the following : — The Pentland Skerries lighthouse (Orkney 



* Mr. R. Davis, juii. 



