228 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Nov. 3rd, 1904, at Haynes. — J. Steele Elliott (Dowles Manor, 

 Salop). 



Sandwich Terns and White Wagtails in Ireland. — For several 

 years past, while residing at Moy View, Co. Sligo, I regularly kept a 

 record of the dates of the spring arrivals of the Sandwich Terns to 

 Killala Bay, and of the Motacilla alba to the island of Bartragh, but 

 having left Moy View and come to reside at Ardnaree, Monkstown, 

 Co. Cork, my friend Captain Kirk wood, of Bartragh House, has kindly 

 undertaken to regularly keep up the future record of dates, and I now 

 give some extracts of his notes for this season. To begin with the 

 Sandwich Terns : they were unusually late ; none were observed 

 until April 27th and 28th, although some years ago I observed them 

 in the bay and estuary as early as March 20th. My records from 1851 

 show that there were twenty-one arrivals in March, viz. : 1852, 

 March 23rd; 1854, March 21st ; 1856, March 20th ; 1877, March 29th ; 

 1880, March 24th; 1881, March 31st; 1882, March 30th; 1885, 

 March 30th ; 1886, March 25th ; 1887, March 28th ; 1889, March 

 19th ; 1890, March 15th ; 1891, March 28th ; 1892, March 27th ; 1893, 

 March 23rd ; 1894, March 27th ; 1895, March 30th ; 1897, March 

 22nd ; 1898, March 31st ; 1899, March 26th ; 1907, March 24th. It 

 would be interesting to know (now that watchers have been placed at 

 the English breeding haunts) whether the Sandwich Terns arrive at 

 their breeding haunts as early as they do at their Irish haunts, 

 and being such early breeders that I have seen fully-fledged birds 

 with their parents on the estuary as early a& June 23rd. The White 

 Wagtails visited Bartragh in unusually large numbers this season, 

 and, owing to the long continuance of north and north-westerly winds, 

 their resumption of their northern flight was delayed until a favour- 

 able change of wind to south permitted it. The first arrival of the 

 advance guard was headed by a pair seen on the 5th inst. ; after- 

 wards single birds began to drop in, and on the 8th a flock of five 

 birds was seen. Next day several more were observed, and on the 

 12th a flock of twenty-five birds ; some of these left, but on the 14th 

 twenty-two were counted about the marshy pasture (their usual 

 haunt). However, as the wind was changing to the south, by the 

 19th only a solitary individual remained on the island. During the 

 migratory season, if the winds are blowing mildly from the south and 

 west, very few birds drop down on Bartragh to rest, but the strong 

 north and north-westerly winds always delay their northern flight, and 

 they then make Bartragh the resting-place until the wind favours. — 

 Bobert Warren (Ardnaree, Monkstown, Co. Cork). 



