Natural History of Ireland. 51 



In the collection of Dr J. D. Marshall of Belfast, there is a fine 

 specimen of the osprey, which was stated by the person of whom he 

 bought it, to have been killed in Queen's county. 



This species is mentioned by Mr Lingwood, as having been seen 

 by him in August 1835, at Oughterard, county Gal way. — Mag. Nat. 

 Hist. Vol. ix. p. 128. 



Jer Falcon — Falco Islandicus, Latham. — The following note 

 appears under the head " Jer Falcon," in the MS. of the late John 

 Templeton, Esq. — " In 1803, I received the skin of a bird of this 

 species, which had been shot near Randalstown," (county, Antrim.) 

 In a letter from John P. Stewart, Esq. dated Rockhill, Letterkenny, 

 Feb. 3, 1837, it is mentioned that in his collection there is a jer 

 falcon, which " was killed in a rabbit-warren close to Dunfanaghy, 

 when on the wing." It is said to exhibit " the mature plumage of 

 the male, (which sex it proved to be on dissection) as described by 

 Temminck, the only point of difference being that my specimen has 

 the bluish cere and tarsi of his young bird." The detailed de- 

 scription of the individual, kindly communicated to me by Mr Stew- 

 art, places the identity of its species beyond a doubt. 



Peregrine Falcon — Falco peregrinus, Linnaeus — It may be 

 stated in general terms, that the peregrine falcon occurs in suitable lo- 

 calities throughout Ireland. In the four maritime counties of Ulster 

 it has many eyries,* and in Antrim, whose basaltic precipices are 

 favourable for this purpose, seven at least might be enumerated — 

 of these one only is inland ; at the Gobbins, regularly frequented by 

 a pair, there were two nests in one year within an extent of rock 

 considerably less than a mile. This is the only instance known to 

 me of so close an approximation on the part of the peregrine falcon. 

 Even at " the Horn" in Donegal, where the extent of lofty preci- 

 pices is very great and continuous, we met with but a pair of these 

 birds, and were informed that they contain only one other eyrie. 



On the two following occasions I had opportunities of remarking 

 this falcon in haunts similar to those which, according to Wilson, it 

 frequents in America. On the 8th of May 1832, as the banks of 

 Belfast Bay,t at about a mile from the town on the northern shore, 



* In rocks only have I known these in Ireland. 



f Several species of the Raptores being mentioned as occurring- in Belfast 

 Bay, it should be stated that the tide recedes here to a very great distance, leav- 

 ing a vast extent of banks uncovered, on many parts of which the grass-wrack 

 (Zostera marina) grows so profusely as to impart a greenish tinge; the whole 

 at low water presenting somewhat the appearance of a marsh. 



