NOTES ON SOME IRISH BIRDS. 849 



-when a drake Shoveller rose close to the shore, and was joined 

 at once by a female. After a short search I found a duck's nest 

 with eleven buflf-coloured eggs, still quite warm ; but till then I 

 had never seen a nest of this species, and I could not be certain 

 of the identity of the eggs or down. I waited under cover, and 

 in a quarter of an hour the Shovellers came round again, flying 

 low over the nest, but before the duck could go to it they were 

 disturbed by a passing boat. In the evening I went back to the 

 nest. The duck rose from it, but it was too dark to identify it 

 for certain, till when it had flown a few yards the drake 

 Shoveller joined it, and both flew round again quite close to me. 



Earlier in the day I had seen another Duck's nest, but had 

 not examined it closely, and, on thinking over the whole inci- 

 dent, I fancied that the eggs in it had been rather too small to 

 belong to a Mallard. I was not able to get back to these lakes 

 for some time, but on going there three months later I found the 

 nest again, though the eggs had hatched out, and was able to 

 get enough of the down and feathers to identify it also as a 

 Shoveller's. The drake Shovellers in this place had a curious 

 habit of sitting out in the middle of the ploughed fields, where 

 they were as conspicuous as they could be ; I saw them doing 

 this repeatedly. Since that year the Shoveller has bred here 

 regularly, but I have never seen more than three pairs in a 

 season. 



The Grasshopper-Warbler is not given in Mr. Ussher's list as 

 breeding in Co. Monaghan, but it is comparatively common. 

 I have only found the nest once, and on that occasion the place 

 where the bird was nesting was trampled over by cattle before 

 the eggs were laid. I watched the bird here one mornmg while 

 the nest was being built. It -was sitting on a low bush of some 

 kind, a couple of feet from the ground, trilling quietly at 

 intervals. I have seen these birds quite near me several times, 

 running almost like Mice through the rough cover. I have heard 

 them in many places in Co. Monaghan, but I only found the nest 

 this once. 



The Whinchat is given in Mr. Ussher's list as possibly 

 breeding in Co. Monaghan. I shot a young bird on August 29th, 

 1905. Last year I tried for some time to watch a bird to her 

 nest, but in the end the bird's patience lasted longer than mine. 



