31 MAY 1851, Page 18

THO M PS 0 N S IRISH .p nms. * mar

third volume.of this•interestiagand pabistakiag collection of facts on Irish birds, either indigenous or -visitants„ is confined to the order of Natatones or Swimmer& -The numbers and variety of • the birds, however, .pnavent anything like sameness. At one end - -.of the chain is found •themmsggnifoentcodd swan, at the other the -stormy -petrel ; and though the intermediate contrasts are not so great, they are suffieient. Wild geese and wild ducks of name- ...rims kinds, different families-of divers and.gulls, are as common -as the day season. The puffin "is a regular summer visit- -and to each tide of the island':'; the great cormorant "is of ordi- :mary occurrence and resident "; and the -roseate, the Sandwich, the :Mack, and the Arctic tern, are visitants or occasionally met with,

:laesides other species or individuals interesting in themselves or -lourious for their rarity.

As water is the demerit of all the creatures embraced in the volume, there is not perhaps the same variety of landscape as -When the reader is alternately carried from the sea-shore or the .fresh-water lalre to the barren moor, the rugged mountain, ..the dense woadlond, or the cultivated plain; but there is the swariety of Nature herself—the sea in all the contrasts that weather, the seasons, the cardinal points, and the nature of the shore can give to it. The inland waters saso vary with the vary- ing character-of the country in which they are -situate ; and this is frequently enhanced by certain birds being met with -on orna- 'snetiW waters in a half domesticated state. Mr. Thompson, too, 'relieves his subject liy blending descripticms of the scene with the creatures _found in it, When the nature of the case permits.

This _relief isymore neeessary as the hook, like its predecessors, :is not a treatise onmattmil history, hut-a collection _of particular

lack; as to the habits and habitat -of the 'birds mentioned. It is gdite true, as Mr. Thompson says in his preface, that a generali- ..anti= of the facts observed-was not attainable, _and that the hook is not intended for continuous perusal, or even for reference to • macrre than one species at a time. This does not alter the 'fact 'that the accumulation of minutiae 'occasionally grows -wearisome, mid that in the present volume the absence of some general ac- ' count of the different birds, will, from their frequent rarity, be felt.as a greater drawback than when the author was dealing with thetter-known -subjects. As a critical remark, this:is no-censure on -'his labours, which -were merely intended to be -supplementary to the regular histories of other authors ; hat the book-is popular in Yirts form, and interesting in a great many of its facts.

The author, like lir. rum" and some other sportsmen-naturd- . tits, complains of the growing scarcity of many species, the abso- - lute extinction of -some and the impending extinction of more. Where this arises from the extension or the improvements of culti- - wation, there is nothing to do but to submit ; or to solace ourselves asith the theory of compensation—that the water-birds, for ex- .:ample, banished by draining, will be replaced by land-birds.

. /finch of the destruction, however, proceeds from pure wantonness

"So great 'has been the mania for collecting birds' eggs during the last few years—though not in one case out of ten with any scientific object in wiew—that the author has often, in the course of preparation of the last two 'volumes, been obliged to use and consider whether he should name par- ticular breeding-haunts of thesegrallatorial and natatorial birds whose nests, being placed upon the ground, are easily discovered, lest he should be the innocent cause of their banishment from the locality. 'He feels well assured that if the rage for egg-collecting continues, many a species will be driven 'from its present haunt.

"The cruelty of shooting great numbers of marine birds in the breeding season has been mentioned in connexion with different species in this work, -and it is feared will not 'be abated -so long as the proprietors of islets or *inky headlands permit such slaughter to be committed upon their property. 'Everywhere around the coast, and at inland lakes where birds are not spe- seially protected, their rapid decrease is apparent, in consequence of wanton persecution. The birds at Lambay Island, off the Dublin coast, having de- creased remarkably of late years, inquiry as-to the cause was made, and the following -reason, among others, communicated. About the year 1842, an 'officer laid a wager that he would shoot five 'hundred birds here in a day, ..and -went to the island with every requisite for his murderous purpose. Ser- vants were constantly employed loading his guns and filling hampers with the slain ; but, long ere the. sun had set, his object was accomplished and 'his bet won. Five hundred birds at this season, be it remembered, may be ' veokoned equivalent to twice or thrice as many, according to the species killed, and: o the number of young they would respectively have produced." - The numerous sources from which Mr. Thompson has.drawn his -facts, in addition to his own observations, not only impart fresh- Hess and -varietr Int often exhibit traits of the observer. The fol- * The Jratural History of Ireland. ;Vol. III. Birds comprising -the Order Na- /stores. William Thompson, Esq., President of the Natural History and Philo- sophical Society of Belfast, &c. &c. Published by Reeve and Benham. 'lowing is a tour& ofmature-in a man and- on a -subjeotwhere -people I are not expected to exhibit it ; for we all get hardened to the de- mands of our business. The -bird is the long-tailed duck. "..11. Bell, who killed the individual just noticed, saw anothersimilar one hi the bay, when out in his boat looking for wild-fowl. It allowed him to approaohsonear that 'with his oar he pushed it under water ; where, beeom- ing entangled in a mass of sea-weeds, the bird was captured; he could not perceive that it was in any way wounded. The wings being fixed-so as to prevent its escape, the duck was laid in the bottom of the boat; 'where he was quite captivated by its tameness, evinced (to use his own expression) by its going swattering with its bill into the little -water that lay in the bottom of the boat.' He regretted the want of tread to give it, believing that the bird would have eaten from his baud. So pleased was he with his captive, that he set it at liberty lest itehould be injured byany one,—agreat -stretch for a man who earns his livelihood by wild-fowl shooting. He would have taken it to the taxidermist, whom he supplied with all rarities, hut was afraid the.latter would kill it. The next day he was grieved to find the poor bird, not far from the place of its liberation, lying dead, with its eyes pioked out, and the body partly eaten, no dealt by some of the larger species of gull."

Human as well as winged bipeds are sometimes:incidentally in- troduced into Mr. Thompson's pages. Here are the Irish cliff- climbers.

"'shall here notice the different methods I have witnessed on the coast of Ireland of deseendiug steep rooks for -birds or eggs. At the Gobbetmss,, a climber' (alluded to at p. 357) has been going down the rocks occasionally in the season for above thirty years, and lies a monopoly -of the aerial exer- cise in consequence of being the only person in the vicinity supplied witha rope for the purpose. His preparation was the work of a moment : throw- ' ." his shoes off and a noose of the rope over his head, so as to embrace .his y beneath-the arms, down he dropped from the summit, with much less concern than a lady steps from her carriage. Two or three men (generally his two brothers) give out' the rope, of which a coil is left back, some little distance from the summit of the cliff. They keep it tight until the egg-gatherer reaches the ledges containing the nests, when he gives a si,gnal to slack it. The liberty thus afforded him to move to -either aide, prevents the necessity of shifting the rope laterally at the summit of the cliff where it is kept to the same place all the time. On descending, he takes hold of the rope with his right hand, grasping it as high up as he can reach. He goes down sideways, keeping his feet against the precipitous anti the whole way, and stopping at each narrow ledge to pick up the eggs or young. i

These are placed in his highland bonnet, which is kept on his until

the plunder commences. After bringing up his bonnet three times filled with eggs and young, at the same number of descents, each occupying' few minutes, he ceased. Holding the rope must be very tiresome on the arm. When the latter became fatigued, he shifted the noose to the opposite side of his body at the next ledge, and took the rope in his other hand." * *" The method adopted at Arranmore—the largest of the islands • of 'Arran off Galway Bay—was different. When Mr. R. Ball and I visited that island in July 1831, a rock-climber—a tall athletic fellow—solar intruded himself upon us when we -were walking towards the cliffs, as to come up be- hind unheard in his pompootes,' and spring high into the air for slew paces past us in proof of his agility. 1Ve soon put this lurthetla the ten by having him lowered over -the loftiest limestone cliffs of the island, perhaps five hundred feet in height. His 'manner of &scent was free and easy. He sat aped a stick, about a yard inlength and two -inches in thiekness,.tothe middle of which one end of the rope was-fastened, the. other being-held-by men above. When coming near his.prey, he held the rope-in one handoand with the other threw a noose fastened to a rod ronnd the birds. Several gulls so taken were brought up. 'When over the cliff, -he tookpleasure exhibiting himself, springing as far into the air from the surface of the -precipice as he could do without injury to himself from the rebound. .He likewise performed various antics, and, with the stick asa seat, looked, nom--, paratively with others in similar situations, quite comfortable and at his ease."