THE CURLEW. 
191 
the wild district of the Glens^ within a few miles of CushendaU. 
When at Toome, in August 1846, a boatman who rowed us to 
Church Island, in Lough Beg, stated that he had been told of its 
having nests in the islands, &c., about there; — in all respects very 
favourable sites for them. The gamekeeper of Mr. Stewart, of 
the Horn (Donegal), has seen their eggs and 3 ^oung in the bogs 
of that remote district ; and I had confirmation of their breeding 
in a tract about seven miles south-west of Dunfanaghy, by two 
young birds of the year being brought to me thence on the 26th 
June, 1832, on the morning of which day they were shot. These 
birds were about the size of whimbrels ; they are stated also to 
breed in the district of Ennishowen, and in the wilder parts of the 
county Monaghan. I am not aware whether the chain of moun- 
tains in Sligo, called the Curlews, has reference to the bird or not. 
According to Mr. G. Jackson (gamekeeper), curlews bred very 
commonly in some localities every year that he lived in Connaught 
(from about 1829-1839). He used to find from ten to twenty 
nests each season, in the extensive flat bogs lying between the 
towns of Swineford and Ballaghaderren, in the county of Mayo ; 
and Castlerea and Erenchpark, in the county of Eoscommon. 
He never found the nest (so called), which is a mere hollow on 
some dry tussock, in any elevated place, and does not recol- 
lect ever seeing one contain more than four eggs. He more fre- 
quently found the young than the nest ; and generally, when train- 
ing young pointers, after the young grouse could fly well, in the 
latter part of July and beginning of August. June and July is 
the principal time of the birds^ breeding there. 
Major Higginson states that curlews continue, to the present 
time, to breed in considerable numbers in a large bog near his 
residence in King^s-county. He is in the habit of exercising his 
horses in a field which adjoins the bog ; and, when there in the 
breeding season, the curlews fly close to him, and are very clamor- 
ous, in the same manner as peewits.* 
The curlew breeds in considerable numbers on the bog of Allen, 
* Mr. J. R. Garrett, June 1848. 
