tions of man. I have remarked this particularly at one locality near Belfast, situated 500 feet above the sea, and backed by hills rising to 800 feet. Marshy ground, the abode of little else than the snipe, became drained, and that species was consequently expelled. As cultivation advanced, the numerous species of small birds attendant on it, became visitors, and plantations soon made them inhabitants of the place. The land-rail soon haunted the meadows; the quail and the partridge, the fields of grain. A pond, covering less than an acre of ground, tempted annually for the first few years, a pair of the graceful and handsome sandpipers (Totanus hypoleucos), which, with their brood, appeared at the end of July or beginning of August, on their way to the seaside from their breeding haunt. This was in a moor about a mile distant, where a pair annually bred until driven away by drainage rendering it unsuitable. The pond was supplied by streams descending from the mountains through wild and rocky glens, the favourite haunt of the water-ouzel, which visited its margin daily throughout the year. When the willows planted at the water's edge had attained a goodly size, the splendid kingfisher occasionally visited it during autumn. Rarely do the waterouzel and kingfisher meet "to drink at the same pool," but here they did so. So soon as there was sufficient cover for the waterhen (Gallinula chloropus) it, an unbidden but most welcome. guest, appeared and took up its permanent abode; a number of them frequently joining the poultry in the farm-yard at their repast. The heron, as if conscious that his deeds rendered him. unwelcome, stealthily raised his "blue bulk" aloft, and fled at our approach. The innocent and attractive wagtails, both pied and grey, were of course always to be seen about the pond. A couple of wild-ducks, and two or three teal, occasionally at different seasons, became visitants; and once, early in October, a tufted

duck (Fuligula cristata) arrived, and after remaining a few days took its departure, but returned in company with two or three others of the same species. These went off several times, but returned on each occasion with an increase to their numbers, until above a dozen adorned the water with their presence. During severe frost, the woodcock was driven to the unfrozen rill dripping into it beneath a dense mass of foliage; and the snipe, together with the jack-snipe, appeared along the edge of the water. The titlark, too, visited it at such times. In summer, the swallow, house-martin, sand-martin, and swift, displayed their respective modes of flight in pursuit of prey above the surface of the pond. The sedge-warbler poured forth its imitative or mocking-notes from the cover on the banks, as did the willowwren its simple song. This bird was almost constantly to be seen ascending the branches and twigs of the willows (Salix viminalis chiefly) that overhung the water, for Aphides and other insect prey. In winter, lesser redpoles in little flocks were swayed gracefully about, while extracting food from the light and pendent bunches of the alder-seed. Three species of tit (Parus major, cœruleus, and ater,) and the gold-crested regulus, appeared in lively and varied attitudes on the larch and other trees. In winter, also, and especially during frost, the wren and the hedgeaccentor were sure to be seen threading their modest way among the entangled roots of the trees and brushwood, little elevated above the surface of the water.

many

So far only, the pond and bordering foliage have been considered : other species might be named as seen upon the trees. On the banks a few yards distant, fine Portugal laurels tempted the greenfinch to take up its permanent residence, and served as a roost during the winter for many hundred linnets, which made known the place of their choice by congregating in some fine tall poplars

that towered above the shrubs, and thence poured forth their evening jubilee.

To name all the birds that cultivation, the erection of houses,* the plantation of trees and shrubs together with the attraction of a garden, brought to the place, would be tedious. It will therefore only be further observed, that the beautiful goldfinch, so long as a neighbouring hill-side was covered with thistles and other plants on the seeds of which it fed, visited the standard cherry-trees to nidify; and the spotted flycatcher, which particularly delights in pleasure-grounds and gardens, annually spent the summer there. Of the six species of British Merulida, the resident missel and song thrushes, and the blackbird, inhabited the place; the fieldfare and redwing, winter visitants, were to be seen in their season; and the ring ouzel, annually during summer, frequented an adjacent rocky glen. Curlews on their way from the sea to the mountain-moor, occasionally alighted in the pasture-fields. The entire number of species seen at this place (seventy-five English acres in extent) was seventy; forty-one or forty-two of which bred there. A few others, the kestrel, ring-ouzel, sand-martin, and quail,--built in the immediate neighbourhood.

Nearly seventy species have been noticed in Kensington Gardens, London. White remarks that " Selborne parish alone has exhibited at times [120 species] more than half the birds that are ever seen in all Sweden. The parish comprises an extent of thirty miles in circumference; and where else within the same

* Including houses in the category may seem inadvertent. But the house-martin annually built about the windows or under the roof of the dwelling-house; as the sparrow did in the spouts; the swallow against the rafters of sheds, and the swift in apertures at the eaves:-the thrush, redbreast, and wren also, occasionally nidified in the outhouses.

+ Yarrell.

inland area should we hope to find so many, as amid the seclusion of that little earthly paradise, with all the "kindly aspects, and sloping coverts," pourtrayed in the pages of its amiable historian. By drawing a circuit of thirty miles around Belfast, and its most populous neighbourhood, (the boundary line being a mile and a half inland from the town, and eight miles and a half seaward, so that the opposite verge may include the greater portion of the bay,) we shall find that at least 185 species have been seen within it, some of them, too, possessing very high interest. Within that circle have appeared the first individuals of several species placed on record as visiting Ireland,and the only examples of three species yet obtained; namely, the spotted redshank, the flat-billed sandpiper, and the surf scoter. Within the limited circuit of thirty miles, alighted in 1802, the first white-banded cross-bill (Loxia bifasciata) known to visit Europe, its native country being Siberia; nor for many years afterwards was the species observed in Great Britain, or in any country of continental Europe. Indeed within the last few years only, has it been distinguished from a nearly allied North American bird. Within the same range occurred the only individual of the Bonapartian gull (Larus Bonapartii) yet ascertained to have migrated to Europe, the species being a native of North America, and common in the fur countries, &c. Within that area was also obtained the first forktailed gull (Larus Sabini) known to wing its way southward, not only to temperate climes, but towards the continent of Europe; and being a young bird of the year, it appeared in a garb, in which the species had never before come under the notice of the naturalist.

But to return to the remark of White, respecting the parish of Selborne producing more species than the half of those found in all Sweden, it must be observed, that as a general rule the number

of species bears no comparison to the area; thus, there are in the parish of Selborne 120 species; within the same space around Belfast 185; in Ireland 262; in the British Islands generally. 320;* in Europe 503; † in North America 471; † in Australia 636; in the world 5,000.||

The neighbourhood of Belfast, including the bay,§ may be considered too fully dwelt upon throughout this work; but what is alluded to in this locality should, unless mentioned as of a local nature, be viewed in the light of an epitome of the general habits or economy of the species. Dates, which may seem too fully given, are interesting in a statistical point of view, as the rapid changes made by man on the material world, affect birds to a great extent. Nowhere is this more required than in connection with the place just named, as railways lately constructed on both sides of the bay, have diminished to a great extent the feeding-ground of the Grallatorial and Natatorial birds. Interesting peculiarities respecting the locality, and the changes effected, will be found noticed under curlew, and other species. The great increase of shipping of late years, and the steam-vessels in particular, have already had a great effect upon them. The swivelguns, too, tell a deadly tale. The adjacent Strangford lough, owing to its comparative retirement, is becoming annually more and more resorted to by birds which would otherwise remain in Belfast bay.

* Jenyns in 1843; several species since added.

† Prince of Canino's Comparative Catal. Birds Europe and North America, 1838. Gould. Introd. to Birds of Australia, 1848.

|| Strickland, Report on Ornithology, Brit. Assoc. Reports, 1844, p. 218. It has been lately remarked that although this is about the number accurately known, there may be in the world 6,000 species. Agassiz and Gould's Principles of Zoology, p. 3, (1848).

§ The plate in Hawker's Instructions to Young Sportsmen, &c. entitled "Approaching Wild-fowl preparatory to the Flowing Tide," gives a good idea of the gullets, as they are called, of Belfast bay.