230 The Natterjack Toad in Ireland. 



stripe along the back appearing more strongly conspicuous. 

 Flies, grasshoppers, beetles, and the larvae of insects are their 

 general food, which they take (only when the object is in 

 motion) by darting their tongue with astonishing rapidity and 

 precision. Their note is a pleasing chirp ; but in the breeding 

 season at night they keep a continued and confused noise, like 

 to the action of a number of spinning-wheels. Strangers that 

 visit Rosbegh during the bathing season do not like occupying 

 the cottages near to the beach, being alarmed at the nightly 

 pranks of these lively but harmless little creatures.* The 

 peasantry have the greatest horror and even dread of them, 

 and on my expressing my astonishment (at the Dingle side) at 

 the number of those reptiles congregated about Rosbegh, was 

 readily answered [in Irish] — 



" Wild Iveragh of the blue dragons, 

 Glencar, in which no corn ever grew, 

 And the high and horrid hills to the west of Desmond, 

 All which Saint Patrick never thought worth blessing. 



1 ' It appears that Saint Patrick in all his visitations through 

 Ireland, never blessed Iveragh with his presence, his nearest 

 approach being to a bridge east of that district, not far from 

 Killorglin. The Iveragh people console themselves by saying 

 that the Saint, standing on the bridge, stretched forth his arms 

 to them exclaiming — 



' I bless ye to the west of me, and it is as well as if I travelled through.' " 



Iveragh, I should explain, is a barony in the county of 

 Kerry, situate immediately to the west of Glanbehy and the 

 mountain of Curragheen, and including the peninsula, or, as it 

 is usually styled, the island, of Rosbegh, which, as Mr. Andrews 

 states, " was formerly separated from the mainland ; but Lord 

 Headley's extensive improvements have converted marshes and 

 sands, that the tide once widely covered, into rich pastures 

 where hundreds of cattle now graze. " 



At the close of his lecture, Mr. Andrews said that he had 

 received the utmost kindness and attention from the coastguard 

 officers at Dingle and Ferritcr's Cove, as well as from the men 

 of the coastguard generally in that district; and this remark 

 leads me to the other pieces of information which I possess, 

 and for which I am indebted to one of the last mentioned 

 officerfl, Mr. Ross Townsend, now residing at Balbriggan. 



Soon after I had received the information conveyed in the 

 old copy of Saumlrrs's Nexus-Letter, I happened (craftily) to 

 ask a distinguished Irishman, " Are there any toads in Ireland?" 



* I am told by Mr. Andrews that the natterjacks astonished these strangers 

 not only by their whirring noise, but also by actually entering the ground-floors 

 of the cottages, and climbing over the furniture. 



