AUG 30 mo 



August, 1920. The Irish Naturalist. 69 



NOTE ON THE FAUNA OF LAMBAY. 



BY THE HON. CECIL BARING. 



A Greenland Falcon (Falco candicans, Gmelin) was caught 

 alive on Lambay, on the 6th May, and is now there in tem- 

 porary captivity, supra, pp. 60, 68. Francis Mason, the 

 gamekeeper at Lambay, had already written on the 4th 

 instant to say that he had seen such a bird, but that as it was 

 soaring high, and the light somewhat uncertain, he was not 

 sure of the identification. I felt that there was a strong 

 probability of his being right, for he happens to be well 

 acquainted with the species, and I have often heard from 

 his lips the story, recorded in Ussher and Warren's " Birds 

 of Ireland," of how Mr. Dames-Longworth's butler, going 

 out fishing at Glenmore in the County Donegal, on the 

 13th of September, 1882, clapped his landing net over a 

 bird of this species, which bird F. Mason (who was in Mr. 

 Longworth's employ at the time) kept alive for over four 

 years. Doubt was set at rest when Mason wrote that on 

 the 6th instant his son Robert had come across the Lambay 

 visitor, gorged with the meat of a recently killed cock- 

 pheasant, and had been able to catch it uninjured. I 

 learn from Ussher's above-mentioned book that the 

 *' Greenlander " has been recorded as visiting Ireland fairly 

 often, but chiefly the west coast, 



F. Mason also reports that the Carrion Crows, previously 

 recorded as visiting Lambay, have nested there this year. 

 Both he and his son are competent observers, and I gave 

 full credence to their report. 



I may take this opportunity of adding to the Lambay 

 list the Little Tern, Sterna minuta. The body of one, 

 which had doubtless flown over from the breeding ground 

 at Rogerstown, was picked up on Lambay on the ist of 

 July, 1919. 



I believe we may also add to the list of mammals (on 

 the strength of a skin now in the hands of Mr. WilHams) 

 the Black Rat, Mus rattiis. Assuming the correctness of 

 the identification, I am inclined to think that this visitor 



A 



