206 
SCOLOPACIDiE. 
a low tabular rock outside the southern entrance to Belfast 
Bay_, annually resorted to by great numbers of terns (Sterna 
arctica, S. Jiirundo, S. Bougallii), for the purpose of breeding, 
a flock of seven or eight redshanks, betra 3 ung great consternation, 
flew frequently around us, never approaching nearer than about 
seventy yards ; just before they appeared, a single bird for 
some time kept circling above us at the same distance, ringing 
its shrill notes upon our ears, and from its apparent uneasiness we 
concluded that its nest could not be far off. When upon the island, 
on the 24th of June in the following year, a similar part was played 
by a small flock of these birds, and but for their being congre- 
gated, I should have supposed they had nests in the locality ; — even 
so they may have had, and their fears at our approach may have tem- 
porarily banded them together. In the same manner, I saw flocks 
of them on the 20th and 21st of June, 1832, about some of the 
low rocky islets in Strangford Lough. Our boatmen, who, 
earning their livelihood chiefly by fishing and shooting, knew 
much about birds, stated that redshanks breed on some of the 
islands every year, where they find their nests. These are said 
to be on the gravelly or shingly beach, like those of the ring 
dotterel, and to contain three or four eggs, which they correctly 
described as to size and colour. 
When visiting a different part of this lough, on the 22nd 
of June, 1846, we saw a small flock of redshanks, and our 
boatmen assured us that they breed on the islands, placing 
their nest high up on the shingle, between tide-mark and the 
grassy margin. The men have often found their eggs, respecting 
which they could not be mistaken, as the birds were seen rising 
from the nests. In localities of a similar nature about Achil Beg 
and Galway Bay, small flocks and single birds were seen by us at 
the end of June and beginning of July, 1834. They breed on 
the Dublin coast at Donabate, where their eggs have been pro- 
cured,* and in islands and marshes embanked off the sea, on the 
coast of Donegal.f 
* Mr. K,. J. Montgomery. 
t Mr. J. V. Stewart. 
