THE BERNACLE. 49 



neighbouring pasture-fields. At the end of September 183 0^ a ber- 

 nacle was obtained at Kilroot, below Carrickfergus,and in November 

 1833^ six were shot about the same time on the banks, at different 

 parts of the bay, within two miles of Belfast. Early in the winter 

 of 1846, one was seen on a bank in company with curlews. A 

 bernacle was noted as being on sale in the market of this town on 

 the 14th, and six on the 19th of September, 1837 ; but, as it is not 

 mentioned where they were procured, the only use of the note is 

 to show that at the time, the species was on some ])art of the 

 coast ; — these birds may have been brought from Lurgan Green, 



On Ballydrain Lake, a beautiful sheet of fresh water near Belfast, 

 covering about twenty acres, (and, perhaps, five English miles in a 

 direct line from the sea,) a flock of eleven bernacle was seen by 

 Mr. Darragh on the 2nd of April, 1849. It was stated by persons 

 living on its borders, that these birds had frequented the locality 

 for a considerable part of the winter. They were very wild, 

 keeping about the middle of the lake, and, when any person ap- 

 proached its margin, they took wing to its opposite extremity. 

 During the entire day they remained on the water, but were not ob- 

 served by night, when, probably, they fed on the short grass upon 

 the banks. In the following winter three bernacle made their 

 appearance here at the latter end of November ; soon afterwards, 

 two, and before long, four more joined them. These nine birds re- 

 mained nntil the end of the first week in February, when, farm- 

 ing operations being commenced on one side of the lake, they 

 took their departure. Eour of them appeared again several times 

 during the ensuing week, but the bustle of the season always 

 frightened them away. This is the only instance known to me of 

 the species resorting to fresh water in the north of Ireland. On 

 the 15th of February, a female bernacle in fine condition, and 

 probably one of the same birds, was shot at "the bog meadows," 

 about three miles distant. Its stomach was filled with the sham- 

 rock trefoil — Trifolmm repens (of which there were a few pieces 

 from four to six inches in length that had been pulled up by the 

 root), pieces of Ranunculi, and grasses. 



The only regular haunt of the bernacle known to me during 



VOL. III. E 



