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APPENDIX. 
me that he “ received a fresh specimen of the little auk the other day 
from the county of Limerick, where it was killed on an inland lake.” 
An adult male, which I saw in a recent state, and which was in admi- 
rable condition, was found dead in the bay within three miles of Bel- 
fast, on the 25th of November, 1850 ; its stomach was empty. On 
the 20th of December, 1850, one was seen on Strangford Lough. 
DECOYS FOR WILD-FOWL IN IRELAND. 
When writing on the Anatidce in the year 1850, I endeavoured to 
procure information on this subject, but with a very unsatisfactory 
result. There is sufficient, however, to show that decoys have been 
in a great degree out of use of late years, chiefly owing to the effects 
of drainage and general improvement of the country in lessening the 
number of wild-fowl visitants to the island. 
1850. Meadows on the margin of Lough Beg, connected with 
Lough Neagh (on its eastern side), still bear the name of ’ coy meadows , 
from the circumstance that there was a decoy there at a very distant 
period. Lough Beg is still one of the finest haunts for wild-fowl in 
the north of Ireland ; wild ducks and wigeon, in particular, are so 
numerous, and in such dense flocks, as, sometimes in calm weather 
when most conspicuous on the smooth surface of the water, to appear 
like floating islands. 
At the Grlyde Barm and Lisrenney (county Louth) it is said that 
many wild-fowl were, at one period, taken ; the former has been long- 
disused. At Beaulieu, in this county, there is an old decoy which has 
not been worked for a very long period. I am informed by Yiscount 
Massareene, respecting two decoys in Loutli — that the one erected by 
the late Baron Foster at Bathescar, is not in working order, and that 
about two miles distant from it, in the demesne of Oriel, are the remains 
of a very good one, in which, in his grandfather Lord Oriel’s day, sixty 
brace of teal would sometimes be taken in a morning. It has not been 
used for upwards of forty years. The present Yiscount has no in- 
tention of restoring this decoy, as it is in one of his best game covers. 
At Mountainstown (county Meath), there was a decoy for teal, where 
a sporting friend has seen numbers taken, but in 1845, the proprietor, 
being written to, stated that it had not been worked for many years, 
