PREFACE. 
XVII 
them breed in the islands of Strangford lake,” p. 233. In 
another part of the volume it is observed : — “ Four of these islands 
are called swan islands, from the number of swans that frequent 
them,” p. 154. That these fine birds built there at so compa- 
ratively late a period may seem doubtful ; but it should be borne 
in mind that Low, in his Fauna Orcadensis, written at the end 
of the last century, informs us that “ a few pairs build in the 
holms of the loch of Stennes,” in Orkney.* Kutty, in Iris 
Natural History of the County of Dublin published in 1772, 
observes : — “ There are two sorts [of “ wild goose, Anser ferus ”~\ , 
the one a bird of passage, that comes about Michaelmas and 
goes off about March ; but there is a larger kind which stays 
and breeds here, particularly in the Bog of Allen,” vol. i. p. 333. 
Harris, in his History of Down, speaks of the “ great harrow 
goose being found in a red bog in the Ardes near Kirkiston,” 
but says nothing of its breeding there. An octogenarian friend 
has, however, informed me that a relative often told him that he 
had robbed the nests of wild geese in this very locality, Kirkiston 
flow ; — red bog of Harris ; — the period of his doing so was previous 
to the year 1775. There is little doubt that the true wild goose 
(A. ferns) was the bird alluded to, as it formerly bred plentifully 
in the fens of England, though for a considerable period they, 
as well as the bogs of Ireland, have been deserted by it. 
The golden eagle is becoming annually more rare, and is now even 
“ very scarce ” t in its former stronghold, the county of Kerry. 
The kite, remarked by Smith in his History of Cork (1749) to 
be so common as to “ need no particular description,” and to re- 
main “ all the year,” has been known in the present century, only 
* No date is given: tlie author died in 1795. His work was not published 
until 1818. 
t Mr. R. Chute. 
