When I was returning from Bartragh on the 5th inst. I observed a dark-coloured Duck diving in the channel near Goose Island, and, not being able to identify it satisfactorily with my glass, I let the boat drift up with the tide until within range, when I fired, the bird diving at the shot; but on coming up it rose, when, with my second barrel, I secured a beautiful specimen of an adult male Black Scoter, in perfect plumage. It was the first I met in summer, and, although numbers frequent the open bay in winter, none ever came into the channels of the estuary, so I felt very fortunate in obtaining such a fine specimen so very unexpectedly.
For some days past[1] both Curlews and Redshanks have begun to return from their breeding grounds to the estuary, and on the 28th June I was surprised to see three or four Greenshanks on the shore here, the earliest date on which I have ever known them to return from their breeding haunts.
The Sandwich Terns, as usual, were the earliest of our visitors. I saw one on March 26th, but the main body of the flight did not appear in the estuary until the first week of April. Although the Lesser Terns arrived on May 4th, the Common Terns were some days later in arriving. When visiting the Terns' breeding haunts near Killala on June 13th, I found, as usual, the Common Terns confining themselves to the gravelly "Inch," about thirty pairs having nests on it, and perhaps eight or ten pairs of the Lesser Tern; while the Arctic Terns were scattered all over the Ross sands for over half a mile along with the majority of the Lesser, laying their eggs on the bare sand and gravel. The numbers of the Common Terns have diminished, while there has been a great increase in those of the Arctic Tern.
- ↑ This communication is dated July 8th.
