312 
EALLIDiE. 
tliat place (3rd edit. 1829^ p. 352), it is said tlie earliest time 
they have been heard calling was the 17th of April and the latest 
the 14tli of August.'’'’ According to a paragraph in the ‘'Northern 
Whig'’ newspaper of April 16, 1842, the corncrake was heard 
calling in the neighbourhood of Carrickfergus on the 8th hist., 
being about ten days earlier than heard at any former period in 
that district.'’'’ If correct, this must have been an isolated 
instance, as in the year 1 842, the bird was very late in arrival 
- -or in making itself known by calling — in the neighbourhood of 
Belfast, where, until the 1st of May, I was not aware of its presence. 
Its non-appearance before May is a rare occurrence : in 1836 it 
was very late, and in 1 838 later than ever before known, not being 
heard until the 6th of May, when numbers appeared all at once. 
Instead of one or two, as is usual on their first arrival, being 
heard, not less than ten gave forth their calls at the same time, 
in the grounds of Eort William, on the borders of the bay. 
Over the north generally they were not quite so late, one having 
been heard near Downpatrick on the 1st of May, and others 
on the 4th at the Moyntaghs, bordering Lough Neagh. Ac- 
cording to dates supplied by my informants, this bird would 
appear not to arrive so early in the more southern parts of Ire- 
land as in the northern, an apparent anomaly which possibly 
may be owing to less attention being paid to the subject there. 
In the south of Wexford, the dates given for six years are, 
April 26, 27, 28; Alay 3, 5, 7.”^ The 30th of April has been 
noted as the earliest date of arrival in the neighbourhood of 
Tralee ;t the 1 3th of May as the average time about Killaloe on 
the Shannon ; it has been remarked as an early instance that the 
call was heard at Edgeworthtown (co. Longford) on the 3rd of 
May, I838.J 
The arrival of the corncrake in the north of Ireland has no 
connexion with the early or late state of the meadows. I have 
remarked the bird here when they hardly concealed its body from 
view, and in other years that it would not appear until two or 
three weeks after they were ready for its reception. Fields of grain 
* Mr. Poole. f Mr. T. F. Neligan. | Rev. T. Kuox. 
