Page:The Natural History of Ireland vol1.djvu/20

 But on this subject the following information on species, at particular periods, is given, that we may judge of the changes which have taken place, either as to their decrease or increase. Those which have decreased in number shall first be considered. According to the Topographia Hiberniæ of Giraldus de Barri (Canbrensis), written towards the end of the 12th century, the crane was very common in Ireland, about a hundred being sometimes seen in a flock. If the bird meant by that author were the true crane (Grus cinerea), and not the heron (Ardea cinerea), commonly called by that name in Ireland to the present day, the stately bird would seem to have been once as common here, as it was, in early times, in England. The latest published record of its occurrence in this island known to me, is that of Smith, who, in his Histories of Waterford (1745) and Cork (1749), remarks, that a few were seen in those counties during the great frost of 1739. They are mentioned as birds of passage, which do not breed; and in the former work are said not to have been seen "since or before in any person's memory." Two instances of the occurrence of single individuals in Ireland in the present century will be found noticed under the species in the present work. That noble bird, the cock of the wood (Tetrao urogallus), was plentiful throughout the native forests of Ireland, but has long since become extinct, the last bird having been killed about a century since. The great bustard (Otis tarda), too, an inhabitant of the open plain, disappeared about the same period.

In "A Brife description of Ireland made in this yeere 1589, by Robert Payne," it is stated:—"There be great store of wild swannes, much more plentiful than in England." Harris, in his History of the County of Down published in 1744, remarks of the wild swan (Cygnus ferus):—"Great numbers of