1905. 



"5 



BIRDS MET WITH ON CONNAUGHT I,AKKS. 



BY R. J. USSHKR. 



I HAVE drawn attention in this magazine to the use made of 

 the Shannon and its lakes by migrants and wandering sea- 

 birds when migrating north and south, but another easy 

 route is afforded by the great lakes, Corrib, Mask, and Conn, 

 by which wild fowl can pass from Killala Bay to Gal way Bay, 

 and thus cut off the dangerous circuit round the coasts of 

 Mayo and Connemara. 



Mr. Warren lives at the northern end of this short cut, and 

 has for over half a century recorded observations, many of 

 which illustrate this migration route. Thus, in October, 1851, 

 and again iu October, 1862, remarkable numbers of Skuas, of 

 two species, were seen entering from Killala Bay, and on the 

 latter occasion these birds were immediately afterwards ob- 

 served in numbers on Tralee Bay. 



My own acquaintance with this part of Ireland is limited 

 to summer, so that the species which breed there are more 

 familiar to me than migrants, and I will relate some of my 

 observations made in May and June in different years. 

 Leaving Galway by boat one has to traverse the River Corrib 

 for three miles before reaching the lake, passing through 

 the cut of Menlough. This channel leads through a wide 

 extent of rough, sedgy ground, once a swamp. Here many 

 breeding Curlews performed their favourite exploit of ascend- 

 ing with rapid strokes, and then projecting themselves, with 

 wings stretched out rigidly, and descending like a parachute. 

 Redshanks and Dunlins, which also breed on this lake, per- 

 form the same manoeuvre in the nuptial season. 



lyough Corrib is about thirty miles in length, aqd has two 

 broad, deep expansions — the rest being a flooded tract of 

 limestone crag, with rocky points and masses of all sizes, 

 either projecting from the surface or barely submerged. 

 Much of this extraordinary basin is so dangerous to navigate 

 that the feathered inhabitants nest undisturbed except by 

 winged enemies. Of these the Marsh Harrier, once a wide- 

 spread resident, still lingers on the lonely bogs beside the 

 lake, where I have watched it sailing, soaring, and wheeling 



