394 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



which are doubtless breeding-places. These breeding-haunts at 

 the present time are mostly remote and not easily accessible, and 

 I may be excused for not particularizing them. 



Pairs of Kestrels are located round the coast at short intervals. 

 The rarer Peregrine frequents annually some of our finest head- 

 lands. The Rock Pipit is ever present, and pairs of the Stonechat 

 enliven the gorze covers of the brows. I have already mentioned 

 the Martin, Chelidon urbica. This bird is nowhere, I think, very 

 common in Man, but visitors to Port Soderick may have noticed 

 their nests clinging to the rock about the well-known " Smugglers' 

 Caves," and a few may be met with at various other places of 

 similar formation on the Santon and other coasts. In both 1893 

 and the present year a few nested on the gable of the pavilion of 

 Derby Castle, Douglas, which is close to the shore and to the 

 cliffs. 



NOTES AND QUERIES, 



MAMMALIA. 



Marten in Co. Wicklow. — My attention having been called to an 

 article in ' The Zoologist ' of March last, under the heading of " The 

 Marten in Ireland," in which the Editor requests further information 

 relative to the haunts and habits of this beautiful animal, I have much 

 pleasure in stating my experience, although the circumstances I am about 

 to relate occurred so long ago as the winter of 1824. At or about that 

 period several Martens were taken alive at Ballyarthur, in the county of 

 Wicklow, under the following circumstances : — In the midst of a large 

 oak-wood, nearly half a mile from the nearest dwelling, there was an 

 octagon-shaped summer-house, one half being boarded at the back, about 

 seven feet high, and thickly thatched with heather, the inside being ceiled, 

 a space being left between it and the roof. In this secure, warm, secluded 

 place the Martens took up their abode. The first intimation we had of 

 their presence was seeing a hole in the thatch, about half-way up. We 

 frequently heard them moving about in the roof, after remaining perfectly 

 quiet for some time. This determined me to try and take some of them 

 alive. I consulted our Scotch steward, who after a time had a large 

 wooden box-trap made, open at each end, which answered the purpose 

 admirably. By this means several of them were taken, and put into a 

 clean hen-coop in the back kitchen of our house, with plenty of clean hay 

 to keep them warm ; in this they remained for several weeks. We fed 

 them with birds, rabbits, &c. ; the food was always eaten at night — never 



