;]G2 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



cliffs are actually hollowed out beneath by the tremendous rollers 

 of the Atlantic, and Choughs place their nests in various positions 

 out of reach of the sea-water, sometimes in crevices just beneath 

 the tops of the loftiest cliffs, sometimes in vertical or tortuous 

 fissures behind an outer cliff that is breaking away from the land. 

 One nest was shown me in the hole that once held a joist of the 

 upper storey within an old castle in the interior of the island ; 

 but the most abnormal site was in a puffing-hole, up which the 

 smoky spray of the sea ascended, opening in the flat surface about 

 a hundred yards from the edge of the cliff. About twelve or 

 fifteen feet down this hole a pair of Choughs had their nest, 

 containing young. One or two pairs of Ravens are said to breed 

 in the north-west cliffs. The Hooded Crow, that ubiquitous bird, 

 was common in Arran, as in Connemara and its other islands ; 

 but the Jackdaw was absent, nor did we meet with any in 

 Connaught, except in the town of Clifden. Rooks, too, were 

 absent : they are said to come over from the mainland in hard 

 frosts, devouring all the corn they can root up and departing 

 again : they do not breed in Arran. A few Magpies are resident, 

 and are said to build their nests of briars and hay (in the absence 

 of trees and sticks) among the ivy on low inland cliffs. An 

 increasing colony of Starlings are established near the village of 

 Kilronan. I did not meet with Starlings elsewhere on the west 

 coast. 



It seemed strange to hear a Blackbird singing loudly on one 

 of the innumerable stone walls, in which they breed in the absence 

 of a bush of any sort. Why this bird should be common in Arran 

 and the Thrush absent, or disappearing, while in Valencia Island 

 the Thrush breeds and the Blackbird is a winter visitant, has yet 

 to be explained. 



The absence of many familiar birds, as Sparrowhawks, 

 Kestrels, Warblers, Titmice, Finches, Swallows, and Swifts, 

 seemed remarkable when contrasted with the presence or 

 abundance of others. Cuckoos' were common in Arran and on 

 the Connemara coasts. We saw them flying about these bare 

 regions by day, perching on the walls, and at night they con- 

 gregate in the isolated groups of small trees which here and there 

 surround some house of a better class than the peasant's hut, 

 disturbing the inmates by their nocturnal babbling. Corn Crakes, 

 too, were numerous, both on the coasts and islands of Connemara, 



