PREFACE. 
XI 
tions of man. I have remarked this particularly at one locality 
near Belfast, situated 500 feet above the sea, and backed by hills 
rising to 800 feet. Marshy ground, the abode of little else than 
the snipe, became drained, and that species was consequently ex- 
pelled. As cultivation advanced, the numerous species of small 
birds attendant on it, became visitors, and plantations soon made 
them inhabitants of the place. The land-rail soon haunted the 
meadows ; the quail and the partridge, the fields of grain. A pond, 
covering less than an acre of ground, tempted annually for the 
first few years, a pair of the graceful and handsome sandpipers 
[Totanus hypoleucos), which, with their brood, appeared at the 
end of July or beginning of August, on their way to the sea- 
side from their breeding haunt. Tins was in a moor about a 
mile distant, where a pair annually bred until driven away by 
drainage rendering it unsuitable. The pond was supplied by 
streams descending from the mountains through wild and rocky 
glens, the favourite haunt of the water-ouzel, which visited its 
margin daily throughout the year. When the willows planted 
at the water's edge had attained a goodly size, the splendid king- 
fisher occasionally visited it during autumn. Rarely do the water- 
ouzel and kingfisher meet “ to drink at the same pool," but here 
they did so. So soon as there was sufficient cover for the water- 
hen ( Gattinula chloropus) it, an unbidden but most welcome 
guest, appeared and took up its permanent abode; a number 
of them frequently joining the poultry in the farm -yard at their 
repast. The heron, as if conscious that his deeds rendered him 
unwelcome, stealthily raised his “ blue bulk " aloft, and fled at 
our approach. The innocent and attractive wagtails, both pied 
and grey, were of course always to be seen about the pond. A 
couple of wild-ducks, and two or three teal, occasionally at diffe- 
rent seasons, became visitants ; and once, early in October, a tufted 
