Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 



143 



marks — « as the wren makes but short nights, and when driven from 

 the hedges is easily run down, to hunt and kill him is an ancient 

 custom of the Irish on St. Stephen's day." The late Mr. T. F. Ne- 

 ligan of Tralee communicated the following note upon this subject 

 iq i S3 7 : — " To hunt the wren is a favourite pastime of the peasantry 

 of Kerry on Christmas day. This they do, each .using two sticks, 

 one to beat the bushes, the other to fling at the bird. It was the 

 boast of an old man who lately died at the age of 100, that he had 

 hunted the wren for the last 80 years on Christmas day. On St. 

 Stephen's day the children exhibit the slaughtered birds on an ivy- 

 bush decked with ribbons of various colours, and carry them about 

 singing the well-known song commencing 



• The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,' &c. 



and thus collect money." Mr. R. Ball* informs me that " this per- 

 secution of the bird in the south is falling into disuse, like other su- 

 perstitious ceremonies." In Dr. Wm. H. Drummond's ' Rights of 

 Animals ' the cruelty practised towards the wren in the south of 

 Ireland (for in the north the practice is quite unknown) is dwelt 

 upon, and a tradition narrated, attributing its origin to political 

 motives. In the first number of Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall's ' Ire- 

 land,' a very full and well-told account of the " hunting of the wren " 

 appears. The legend there given as " current among the peasantry " 

 is not however confined to them, for Mr. Macgillivray, apparently 

 without knowing anything of the Irish fable, relates the very same 

 as told by the inhabitants of the Hebrides (Brit. Birds, vol. iii. p. 19) ; 

 and a detailed account of the wren being called a "king-bird" over 

 a considerable part of the European continent will be found in one 

 of the volumes of the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, entitled 

 the ' Habits of Birds,' p. 49. Much the fullest description of the 

 wren I have met with is from the pen of Mr. Weir, and published 

 in Mr. Macgillivray's work just mentioned. 



The Hoopoe, Upupa Epops, Linn., was recorded about 

 a century since as having been met with in Ireland : it has 

 occasionally appeared in all quarters of the island. 



Smith, in his ' History of Waterford,' published in 1745, remarks 

 of the hoopoe — " I never heard of above one being seen in this coun- 

 try ; this was shot upon the ruins of the old church of Stradbally, 

 during the great frost of 1739, and was long in the possession of 

 Mr. Maurice Uniacke of Woodhouse." The same author, in his 

 ' History of the county of Cork,' observes, that " the hoopoe is with 

 us a very rare bird," but gives no particulars of its occurrence. In 

 McSkimmin's ' History of Carrickfergus,' it is related that " one was 

 shot on the shore near the town, Sept. 21, 1809 ;" and Mr. Tem- 

 pleton records another example as obtained there in 1818. By W. 

 R. Wilde, Esq., of Dublin, I have been informed, that about the year 

 1819 an individual of this species was killed at Cloverhill, near the 



* This gentleman mentions that the hedge sparrow {Accentor modularis) 

 is called wren's-man in the south of Ireland, and that it often falls a sacrifice 

 to the hunters of the wren. 



