Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/375

Rh road. Mr. Williams began imitating the call, and did it so cleverly that in a short time the female was joined by a lovely male; and as he continued to call, a second male also came up to where the other two birds were; but although we spent more than half an hour searching for the nest, we were unable to find it, and had to return disappointed at our want of success. The next evening we saw the birds at the same place, and again searched for the nest without success, but felt quite satisfied that two pairs were breeding at the place somewhere about the oat-field.

On June 5th, 1895, I again came across the Yellow Wagtails, when visiting Lough Mask in company of my friend Mr. R.J. Ussher. Landing on some islands on the western side of the lake, opposite Cushlough, we met two pairs, evidently having nests from the anxiety they evinced while we were exploring the islands; and later in the day, when landing at the Cong end of the lake, we saw a fine male on the rocky shore. The next morning, when proceeding from Cong across Lough Corrib to Currarevagh, Mr. H. Hodgson's place, we met a pair on an island about halfway across the lake; and two days after Mr. Ussher saw two pairs on islands lower down the lake towards Oughterarde, thus showing that the birds were widely distributed along the shores and islands of these two lakes. It is very strange and impossible to explain why these birds should be restricted to these four lakes, while no trace of them in the breeding season is to be found on other lakes throughout the island which are apparently as well suited in every respect.

Mr. R.J. Ussher, who has on two or three occasions thoroughly explored Lough Erne and its islands, has neither met with nor obtained any intelligence of the bird there; nor in his explorations of Lough Ree, on the Upper Shannon, has he come across it. When visiting the Donegal lakes, those of Roscommon, and the midland counties, no trace of it has been found. Again last summer, when visiting in his company that beautiful lake near Sligo, Lough Gill, and Lough Melvin near Bundoran, we neither saw nor heard anything of this bird. And although I have often explored that fine sheet of water in North Mayo, "Lough Conn," with its companion lake Cullen, the bird has neither come under my notice, nor that of several of my