346 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



ON THE BREEDING RANGE OF THE YELLOW 

 WAGTAIL IN IRELAND. 



By Robert Warren. 



The Yellow Wagtail, Motacilla rail (according to Yarrell and 

 H. Saunders), is generally distributed as a breeding species 

 throughout England and Wales in all suitable localities. In 

 Ireland it is a remarkable fact that, as far as at present known, 

 the breeding range of this species is restricted within the very 

 limited areas of the shores and islands of four lakes (Loughs 

 Neagh, Carra, Mask, and Corrib) ; though once, according to 

 Mr. E. Williams of Dublin, a pair bred a few miles from that 

 city. Up to the date of the publication of William Thompson's 

 ' Birds of Ireland ' (1849-1851) this bird was only known to breed 

 on the shores of Lough Neagh and Derrywarragh Island ; and in 

 his appendix to the third volume the author mentions " visiting, 

 on May 4th, 1850, in company of his friend Mr. Garrett, the 

 Wagtails' breeding haunts on Derrywarragh, where they saw not 

 less than forty of them ; in one little piece of pasture three pairs 

 appeared within twenty-five yards of each other, and three or 

 four birds were frequently seen only a few feet apart on the 

 ground, or on wing at the same moment." 



Since then the late Lord Lilford found a nest on the shore of 

 Lough Corrib, in Co. Galway ; and Mr. W. H. Good, of Westport, 

 Co. Mayo, informed me (in 1891) that he discovered them breeding 

 on the shores and islands of Loughs Carra and Mask, in South 

 Mayo; but it was not until June, 1893, that, in company of my 

 friend Mr. W. Williams, of Dublin, when visiting Lough Carra, 

 that I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing the Yellow Wagtail 

 in its breeding haunt. We had walked from Ballinrobe to the 

 bridge at the end of the lake, and, while watching some Terns 

 fishing, Mr. Williams suddenly exclaimed, " I hear the calls of a 

 Yellow Wagtail " ; and shortly after we saw a female with food in 

 her bill, standing on a tall thistle in an oat-field alongside the 



