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NOTES ON SOME IEISH BIEDS. 

 By the Kev. J. M. McWilliam. 



Co. Monaghan, with which most of these notes deal, is most 

 remarkable for such birds as the Great Crested Grebe, the Water- 

 Bail, and the Grasshopper-Warbler, which breed in consider- 

 able numbers ; indeed, I know no place where these birds breed 

 more numerously. I have no specially rare birds to record, 

 but I have a few minor additions to make to the breeding-list as 

 given in ' The Birds of Ireland.' 



The Common Tern is mentioned in the county list as possibly 

 breeding in Co. Monaghan. It breeds regularly, and has done 

 so for many years, on a small chain of lakes near the border of 

 Co. Cavan, about thirty miles from the sea. Two or three pairs 

 come every year, but they never increase in number. 



The Black-headed Gull, too, has to be added to the breeding 

 list for this county. A few pairs bred in 1903 in the same 

 locality as the Common Terns, and apparently numbers of these 

 birds breed regularly somewhere in the neighbourhood, as they 

 are constantly to be seen there in the nesting-season. 



The Shoveller is given in Mr. Ussher's list as possibly 

 breeding in Co. Monaghan. In the last ten years it has bred 

 regularly on these same lakes. I had seen these birds occasion- 

 ally in previous years, but it was not till May, 1906, that I 

 actually found the nest. I was rowing in to a point of land,. 



