it seems to be quite true that there are no toads, moles or snakes in Ireland. The Black Rat (Mus rattus) is said to be found in an island in Mulroy Bay, but this requires confirmation.
Donegal can give a good account of birds, from the lordly Eagle downwards. The Golden Eagle has been often shot, and sometimes captured alive. The Peregrine Falcon and Merlin have been kept for long periods in confinement; and some have succeeded in making pets of the Barn and the Tawny Owl. There is a sufficient variety of song birds to keep up an interest in these charming neighbours. The Song Thrush (Turdus musicus) makes musical the dawn and gloaming from February till the middle of April: one fine performer which sings in a horse-chestnut in the garden brings flocks of the villagers specially to hear what they call the "Irish Nightingale." The Wren, Bullfinch and Swallow build about the houses, as do numerous Blackbirds; and in winter may be seen every day the Common Crane,[1] the Waterhen, and the Cormorant, and sometimes the gleam of the Kingfisher may be marked in his swift flight up the stream. Wigeon, Teal, and Bernicle Geese frequent the muddy flats of the Swilly in winter, and are shot in numbers by those enthusiasts who choose to lie out all night in a flat-bottomed boat.
By the student of antiquity the County Donegal is held in reverence as the birth-place of St. Columb, and numerous are the legends connecting him with every hill and lough. The island of Tory is said to have been the scene of his missionary labours and miraculous exploits; but be that as it may, it is an island full of interest to the antiquary. Besides the old croms and round towers, which have been so carefully built that they resist effectually the climatic influences, and justify the poet in speaking of them as "the conquerors of time," the crannoges, or lake dwellings, which in the earlier periods of Irish history were preferred by the Irish chiefs to buildings on the mainland, are objects of great interest. The drainage of lands, which has been going on for the last few years, has revealed many of these old dwellings, long lost to sight, and at Portlough, four miles from Ramelton, one has recently been revealed which affords a fine example of the nature and uses of these settlements. The shell-mounds, which are common in the district of Faunett, are of considerable interest: they are invariably
- ↑ The bird here intended is the Heron, which in many parts of Ireland is called the Crane.—Ed.
