452 APPENDIX. 



me that he " received a fresh speeimen of the little auk the other day 

 from the county of Limerick, where it was killed on an inland lake." 

 An adult male, which I saw in a recent state, and which was in admi- 

 rable condition, was found dead in the bay within tbree miles of Bel- 

 fast, on the 25th of November, 1850 ; its stomach was empty. On 

 the 20th of December, 1850, one was seen on Strangford Lough. 



DECOYS FOK WILD-FOWL IN IRELAND. 



When writing on the Anatldca in the year 1850, I endeavoured to 

 procure information on this subject, but with a very unsatisfactory 

 result. There is sufficient, however, to show that decoys have been 

 in a great degree out of use of late years, chiefly owing to the effects 

 of drainage and general improvement of the country in lessening the 

 number of wild-fowl visitants to the island. 



1850. Meadows on the margin of Lough Beg, connected with 

 Lough Neagh (on its eastern side), still bear the name of 'coy meadows, 

 from the circumstance that there was a decoy there at a very distant 

 period. Lough Beg is still one of the finest haunts for wild -fowl in 

 the north of Ireland ; wild ducks and wigeon, in particular, are so 

 numerous, and in such dense flocks, as, sometimes in calm weather 

 when most conspicuous on the smooth surface of the water, to appear 

 like floating islands. 



At the Glyde "Farm and Lisrenney (county Louth) it is said that 

 many wild-fowl were, at one period, taken ; tbe former has been long 

 disused. At Beaulieu, in this county, there is an old decoy which has 

 not been worked for a very long period. I am informed by Viscount 

 Massareene, respecting two decoys in Louth — that the one erected by 

 the late Baron Foster at Eathescar, is not in working order, and that 

 about two miles distant from it, in the demesne of Oriel, are the remains 

 of a very good one, in which, in his grandfather Lord Oriel's day, sixty 

 brace of teal would sometimes be taken in a morning. It has not been 

 used for upwards of forty years. The present Viscount has no in- 

 tention of restoring this decoy, as it is in one of his best game covers. 



At Mountainstown (county Meath), there was a decoy for teal, where 

 a sporting friend has seen numbers taken, but in 1845, the proprietor, 

 being written to, stated that it had not been worked for many years. 



