132 



The Irish Naturalist. 



June, 



white birds, the Gulls far outnumbering the Terns, which 

 frequent the centre. 



In 1890 I reached that island by swimming, in spite of the 

 menacing stoops of the crowd of excited Gulls. The bank 

 was overgrown with large sallows, on creeping through 

 which I was confronted by a zone of tall nettles ; trampling 

 down these I reached the open space which forms the citadel 

 of the Sandwich Terns. It was strewn with their eggs on 

 what I can only describe as a common floor of nesting 

 material, composed of bits of reed, the nesting hollows in 

 this being very slight. The newly-hatched Terns were not 

 in fluffy down like the young Gulls, which occupied nests all 

 around, and even under the trees and bushes. The coating 

 of the former lay close to their bodies. By this time, 15th 

 June, most of the fertile eggs had evidently been hatched, 

 as those that remained, being mostly single and discoloured, 

 seemed to be addled. We found the caretaker of this lake 

 came at once upon the scene when the birds were disturbed, 

 and without permission of the owner no one is allowed to 

 visit the place. 



In north-western Mayo, I^ough Carrowmore contains islands 

 on which Cormorants and Herons breed on low trees and 

 bushes, and some of the former nest on the ground among 

 tall weeds. The Common Gull also breeds on the islands of 

 this lake, as it does on many of the small moorland lakes 

 near the coasts of Donegal, Mayo, and Connemara. Its nests 

 are to be found in depressions of the rocky surface, and even 

 perched on isolated rock-masses in these lakes, which are not 

 always in districts deserted by man. The peasant's cottage 

 may overlook a lake where Herons and Gulls are nesting on 

 islets in full view, but these are no more disturbed than a 

 rookery would be in other counties. 



Before Eagles of both species were so widely exterminated 

 in Ireland, there were instances in which they nested on 

 low trees or bushes on lake-islands in the bogs of western 

 Con naught. 



The number of Herons that breed on some of the islands 

 of Connemara lakes is surprising. On lyOUgh Bolard, in 

 Connemara, seventy Herons, old and young, w^ere killed on 

 one occasion, and many dozens of eggs taken. I visited it in 



