VI 
PREFACE. 
Attractive and varied as are tlie birds included in tlie first 
volume^ it does not treat of any one that is sought after by the 
British sportsman. The present volume^ on the contrary, con- 
tains all those which are the objects of his pursuit, excepting 
the web-footed species {Anatidce). 
Belfast Bay being so frequently mentioned in this volume, it 
may be proper briefly to state that its length is about twelve 
miles and a half;"^ its breadth, to seven miles below the town, 
little exceeds three miles in any part ; but thence it gradually 
expands on either side to the width of six miles and a half at 
the entrance. The river Lagan, having a considerable volume of 
water, falls into the bay at Belfast, and the flowing tide ascends 
it for two miles above the lowest bridge. Within little more than 
four miles of the town nearly all our grallatorial birds are 
obtained, three-fifths of the banks of the estuary within that dis- 
tance being laid bare by every ebbing tide ; — as four-fifths were, 
previous to the embankment made on each side for railways within 
the last few years. These banks, excepting on some very limited 
portions of the Down shore, on which hard sand prevails, are wholly 
of a soft oozy nature, on which the grass-wrack [Zostera marina) 
grows profusely. Brom the shores of the bay below tliis distance 
(four miles) to its entrance, the tide does not recede very far, and 
where it does so, banks of sand chiefly prevail, varied in some 
places by beds of gravel, stones, or rocks. Both sides of the 
bay are sheltered by ranges of hills, which rise on the western 
side, at MWrBs Fort, to 1,181 feet, and on the eastern, above 
Holy wood House, to 530 feet in height. The ridge of hill behind 
Garnerviile, over which the wigeon generally, and different 
species of the grallatorial birds, occasionally fly to the quietude 
Geographical or “ Sea-miles ” of Capt. Beechey’s Chart of Belfast Bay. 
