346 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



AVES. 

 White-tailed Eagle no longer breeding in Ireland.— It is with 

 great regret that I have to state that the last pair of White-tailed 

 Eagles breeding in Ireland have disappeared from their old breeding 

 haunts on the North Mayo cliffs. The last stronghold and refuge of 

 the Haliaetes albicilla in Ireland, where they have regularly bred 

 from time immemorial, after a long struggle for existence, have 

 now fallen by the traps and poison of the keepers of adjacent grouse- 

 shootings, by whom they had long been doomed to destruction, and 

 the marvel is that they had so long escaped the keeper's vengeance. 

 It is sad to think that for the future neither naturalist nor tourist 

 will enjoy the sight of these noble birds in their haunts on the 

 magnificent cliffs of the Mayo coast, rising from the water to a 

 height of seven to eight hundred feet. Now^ that the birds have dis- 

 appeared there is nothing left to remember them by except the old 

 nests, still visible in several places along the cliffs, and resembling 

 cartloads of dead and rotten sticks — the withered stems of heather. 

 There is one on the great cliff of Loughtmuriga, two or three miles 

 from Belderig, another on Alt More, and three to be seen on the 

 great cliff of Alt Eedmond, and the one last used on Spinks ; these 

 five last-named are situated on the range between Porturlin and 

 Portacloy. I remember when two pairs bred on these great cliffs, 

 and in winter one or two of the immature birds used to take up their 

 abode on the sandhills of Bartragh Island, Killala Bay, where they 

 subsisted on the rabbits and any dead fish thrown upon the shore. 

 These annual visits took place regularly every season until 1856, 

 when they ceased, and since then only a very occasional visit has 

 been noticed, evidently showing that the war of extermination had 

 then begun. When I first visited the North Mayo coast, July 1st, 

 1892, specially to ascertain whether Eagles still bred there, I was 

 fortunate in my quest, for on inquiry I was told that a pair still bred 

 there, and had a nest with young on Spinks Cliff, situated between 

 Porturlin and Portacloy ; so, driving round to Porturlin, I engaged a 

 boy to show me where the nest was, but after leaving the village and 



