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creation is wonderful, but in no department is it more marked 

 than in birds. This was illustrated by the heron, the curlew, 

 the swallow, and raptorial birds, such as eagles, hawks, and 

 owls. The short-eared owl is an occasional but erratic migrant 

 to Ireland in winter. The present season is a great owl year. 

 Mr. Darragh, the excellent curator of our Museum, has got 

 about twenty specimens, and Mr. Sheals about six or eight. 

 After treating of the family of vultures, and of the adaptation 

 of water-fowl to their modes of life, the writer stated that 

 the variety of colour among birds is no less striking than that 

 of form and size. As with tropical plants, so among tropical 

 birds are to be found the most gorgeous in colour as well 

 as the richest in plumage. The variety of movement, too, 

 is considerable. Of the 211 species of British birds, 128 are 

 permanent residents, 52 summer, and 31 winter migrants. The 

 numbers of many of the resident species are largely reinforced 

 by migration. The causes that induce birds to undertake 

 long, fatiguing, dangerous journeys over thousands of miles of 

 sea and land are principally their search for food and their 

 natural desire to reproduce their species under the most favour- 

 able conditions. The writer then dealt with the habits of the 

 more conspicuous summer migrants — the barn swallow, the 

 house martin, the sand martin, and the swift, afterwards men- 

 tioning the wheatear, whinchat, and stonechat. The warblers 

 are very unobtrusive, and so shy in their habits as seldom to be 

 noticed. The most distinguished member of this family is 

 the nightingale, which sings during the day as well as the night. 

 Sometimes an extraordinary " rush" of some species of birds 

 occurs, and it may not be seen on migration again for some 

 years. Such a migration of golden-crested wrens, one of the 

 smallest of British birds, occurred in 1882. The writer then 

 treated of the habits of the corncrake, the cuckoo, and those 

 birds that from a summer home farther north come to our 

 latitudes as a comparatively temperate climate in which to spend 

 the winter. In consequence of the large extent of coast line, 

 in comparison with the superficial area, in Ireland the avifauna 

 is especially rich in marine species, as compared with France 



