Page:The Natural History of Ireland vol1.djvu/103

 Killagan, on the 20th of August, 1847, by George Hutchinson, Esq., of Ballymoney. They sprung together, in the evening, from a little hillock rising above a marsh in which he had killed some wild ducks and snipes, and were brought down "right and left" — one with each barrel. They were kindly sent to the Belfast Museum, and are preserved in the collection. This species breeds in the heath at Claggan (Antrim.)

An adult male, fired at and wounded, in August, 1837, at a small lake near Ballynahinch (Down), ejected two young water- hens when captured. One killed on the moor near Tollymore Park, in August, 1836, was shown to me by the gamekeeper as a bird he had not before (during nine years) met with in that neighbourhood ; which is indeed too mountainous to be much frequented by the marsh harrier. The stomach of the bird alluded to was filled with frogs. Many years ago, a friend saw two of their nests on the ground in Island Mahee and Island Reagh, Strangford Lough, and shot the females rising from them ; in each nest four eggs were found.

Some years since, a brood, consisting of three or four young birds was brought to Belfast from the mountains of Ballynascreen, in Londonderry ; and Wm. Ogilby, Esq., procured, in 1842, an old marsh harrier, which had been taken by means of a noose, at its nest in Glenshane, near Dungiven, in that county. This bird, being uninjured, was sent to the splendid menagerie at Knowsley, the seat of the Earl of Derby.

At the commencement of the grouse-shooting season, many years ago, a late nest was found on the ground among the heath, on the mountains of Mounterlowney, in Tyrone, by an old sport- ing friend. This gentleman remarks, that he has often seen the marsh harrier "quarter" its ground like a setting-dog, as the hen harrier is well known to do, and that he considers his perfor- mance in this way equal to that of the latter species. Within the last few years, its nests have been met with in another part of that county. None of the mountains alluded to as breeding-places are of an Alpine character,* but all are heath-clad, such as we

See Jardine's Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 239