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[Proc. B.N.F.C., 



sprang into importance. Other examples could be given, but 

 perhaps I have said enough to remind you that it is the little 

 things that really count with us, and that their importance is only 

 just beginning to be recognised. 



Let us see if we can arrive at any idea as to the number of 

 birds that live in Ireland for six months of the year — April to 

 September. At best it can only be a rough estimate, but it shall 

 be a low one. There are roughly 20,500,000 acres in Ireland ; 

 if we take the average number of pairs of breeding birds as three 

 to the acre, it will, I think, be below the actual figure. I consulted 

 both ornithologists and farmers on this point, and the estimates 

 varied from three to twenty per acre, but by means of a careful 

 calculation, in which I have been assisted by my friend Mr. 

 Foster, I have come to the conclusion that three per acre is a fair 

 number to take. In this connection, I may add that in one 

 protected estate in Germany, of 12 or 13 acres, the average number 

 comes to about 40 pairs per acre, but of course this is quite 

 exceptional. On the one hand, we have to think of the numberless 

 large colonies of birds such as Rooks, Jackdaws, Gulls, the Swallow 

 family, etc., where the average number per acre would be immensely 

 higher (at Rash Wood, in County Tyrone, the rookery there has 

 been computed at 10,000 nests), and, on the other hand, we must 

 remember the barren mountain or bog, though even on the barest 

 mountain Curlews, Golden Plover, Snipe, Grouse, or Meadow 

 Pipits would probably make up the low average I have taken. 

 However, not to be accused of exaggeration, let us take the 

 average number as three pairs to the acre. This low figure gives 

 us the number of over 61 million pairs of breeding birds in Ireland 

 during the summer months — more than thirteen times the present 

 total human population. Each nest will contain on an average 

 four young — that is under the actual average — (I found a Tufted 

 Duck's nest of 17 eggs last June) — and thus we get the enormous 

 number of 246 million bird mouths to be fed in this country. 

 Let us allow liberally for the loss of eggs and young that we know 



