364 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Herons nesting among Osmunda on the ground. I explored 

 Garumna, and was shown by the inhabitants islands in several 

 lakes where they said Herons bred, though none were visible 

 when I was there. These islands were more or less rocky, and 

 contained low scrub, bracken and Osmunda. A pair of Hooded 

 Crows appeared, by their anxiety on my approach, to have young 

 on one of these low islands. We were informed at Kilkieran that 

 Herons breed on the little islands in a neighbouring mountain- 

 lake called Lough Pibrum. 



In districts where suitable trees are wanting Herons some- 

 times build in the sea-cliffs, as on Bere Island, Bantry Bay, and 

 near Sybil Head, on the Dingle Peninsula; but in Southern 

 Connemara, where cliffs as well as trees are absent, the islands 

 in the numerous lakes, though small, afford the best retreats for 

 Herons as well as other large birds. Wild Ducks breed there 

 numerously, and on the 9th and 10th June I found Ducks sitting 

 on eggs beneath the luxuriant heather and Menziesia on such 

 islets. 



The 'Fingal' having anchored at Koundstone, I ascended 

 Errisbeg Mountain, which commands a most striking panorama, 

 extending from the cliffs of Moher, in Clare, and the Arran 

 Islands, over all Southern Connemara, intersected by its numerous 

 fiords and lakes, while the neighbouring seas are studded with 

 islands of every size from that of a mountain downwards, ter- 

 minating in Slyne Head on the west, with the island of Inishbofin 

 and Achill, and the top of Croagh Patrick rising behind the 

 Twelve Pins. 



Connemara is a country of granite and peat-bog, whose 

 deeply-indented coasts are devoid of cliffs and support a con- 

 siderable population. Trees are very rare, yet from Errisbeg 

 I saw beneath me to the west a lake with wooded islands in it 

 called Boulard Lake. Hearing that Herons bred there, I visited 

 it on the 9th June. I had to swim a considerable distance to 

 the island that contained the heronry, and found to my surprise 

 that the large trees which covered it were hollies of great 

 antiquity and gigantic size, for though not very lofty their trunks 

 and spread of branches exceeded any idea I had formed of a holly. 

 The Herons' nests were about ten to fifteen feet from the ground. 

 They were the largest I had ever seen, having evidently been 

 added to from year to year, and some of them must have been 



