68 NATURE IN ACADIE. 



We had a favourable passage from St. John's, but up 

 to the time we neared the Irish coast very little of 

 interest is to be recorded. In the mid-Atlantic the only- 

 birds I noticed were some few of the small, black, 

 white-rumped petrels, including the Leach's, Wilson's, 

 and stormy petrels, which are commonly known as 

 " Mother Cary's chickens," and a small number of 

 greater shearwaters, with which were, I believe, one or 

 two of the less known " dark-bodied " shearwaters, 

 which were until recently thought to be the young of the 

 last mentioned species. There were also a fair number 

 of fulmars, among which were several of the dark 

 phase, which variety or race has those parts which are 

 normally white of a deepish grey. 



On June 7 we were off the north-west coast of 

 Ireland, and bird-life was more abundant, although 

 not of great variety. The fulmars were still with us in 

 some numbers, but there were none of the dark phase 

 which I had noticed some few days before. There 

 were also here a few black-backed, herring and other 

 gulls, one pair of gannets, and numbers of puffins, 

 guillemots and other diving birds which were usually 

 observed in parties of varying magnitude. 



As we entered the approach to Lough Foyle we were 

 much struck by the beautiful and picturesque scenery, 

 superior, I thought, to almost anything to be seen on 

 the other side of the water. The hillsides were green 

 with the greenest of well-tended fields, and above these 

 the hills, green to the very summit, seemed to assert 

 the peculiar aptness of the epithet " Emerald Isle." 

 Through the fields wound white and tiresome-looking 

 roads, while here and there were dotted the characteristic 

 cabins of the peasantry, who were summoned to their 

 doors by the report of our rockets and stood there wav- 

 ing handkerchiefs and aprons to welcome home again 

 countrymen, or, perhaps, relations. Down by the 

 water were the residences of the more wealthy classes, 

 and. here, too, we passed a small but picturesque ruin 

 which instantly became an object of interest to our 

 amateur photographer. Soon, however, we were lying-to 



