The hish Naturalist, 
March* 
In this last -mentioned fact we have the clue to a some- 
what singular sentence in the preface, which states that 
while Warren had written the articles on White Wagtail, 
Surf Scoter, Spotted Redshank, Greenshank, Bar -tailed 
Godwit, and Sandwich Tern, he was not responsible for 
the rest of the work." Warren felt strongly that such 
limitations as the publishers had imposed, made it impossible 
for the book to discharge what he conceived to be its aim — 
that of covering in the light of later research the ground 
that had formerly been occupied by Thompson's three 
volumes on Irish birds. He was, therefore, far from satisfied 
with the outcome of his own and his colleague's work. 
But he yielded to no one in his admiration for the manner 
in which Ussher had laboured under such difficult conditions. 
Had it been possible to treat of all the birds on the scale on 
which a few, such as the Chough and the Peregrine, were 
handled, his enthusiasm for his friend's work would have 
been unbounded. 
As a personal observer of the habits of birds. Warren 
had probably — despite his unremitting activity in pursuit 
of specimens — acquired a larger fund of information than 
any of his colleagues. Being out at all hours and in the 
sharpest weather, he could scarcely miss a sight or sound 
having any bearing on ornithological subjects. The deep 
nuptial note of the male Long -eared Owl — essentially a bird 
of the woods — was as familiar to him as if it had been a 
cry of the treeless wastes or the open sea -board, though not 
one naturalist in ten — even of those living in the better 
wooded parts of the country — seems ever to have heard 
this somewhat uncanny sound of the January and February 
nights. The discovery that the Sandwich Tern, even in its 
far inland breeding ground in Fermanagh, feeds its young 
with sand-eels brought from the sea instead of with fish 
caught in the adjacent fresh water, was made by his 
observant eye a little too late to allow of its being mentioned 
in The Birds of Ireland." He was probably the last 
naturahst who saw the Sea -Eagle in one of its Irish haunts 
before it became extinct in this country. Though he shot 
rare stragglers without compunction, and revelled in turning 
over the skins in a large collection for the purpose of 
