XIV 
PREFACE. 
inland area should we hope to find so many, as amid the seclusion 
of that little earthly paradise, with all the a kindly aspects, and 
sloping coverts,” pourtrayed in the pages of its amiable historian. 
By drawing a circuit of thirty miles around Belfast, and its most 
populous neighbourhood, (the boundary line being a mile and a 
half inland from the town, and eight miles and a half seaward, so 
that the opposite verge may include the greater portion of the 
bay,) we shall find that at least 185 species have been seen within 
it, some of them, too, possessing very high interest. Within that 
circle have appeared the first individuals of several species placed 
on record as visiting Ireland ,and the only examples of three species 
yet obtained; namely, the spotted redshank, the flat-billed sand- 
piper, and the surf scoter. Within the limited circuit of thirty 
miles, alighted in 1802, the first white-banded cross-bill [Loxia 
bifasciata ) known to visit Europe, its native country being Siberia; 
nor for many years afterwards was the species observed in 
Great Britain, or in any country of continental Europe. Indeed 
within the last few years only, has it been distinguished from 
a nearly allied North American bird. Within the same range 
occurred the only individual of the Bonapartian gull (. Larus Bona - 
partii) yet ascertained to have migrated to Europe, the species 
being a native of North America, and common in the fur coun- 
tries, &c. Within that area was also obtained the first fork- 
tailed gull [Larus Sabini ) known to wing its way southward, 
not only to temperate climes, but towards the continent of 
Europe ; and being a young bird of the year, it appeared in a 
garb, in which the species had never before come under the notice 
of the naturalist. 
But to return to the remark of White, respecting the parish of 
Selborne producing more species than the half of those found in 
all Sweden, it must be observed, that as a general rule the number 
