Rat in Flower GardenAuthor(s): Anne L. MassySource: The Irish Naturalists' Journal, Vol. 1, No. 6 (Jul., 1926), p. 115Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25531248 .
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July, 1926.] 115
MAGPIES AND THE WARBLE FLY. 1 wonder if any Irish reader of this Journal can say whether tbat
farmer's bane and cattle pest?the Warble Fly?is rare or ccmparatively so where magpies are numerous and not harried too much by gamekeepers. The lady owner of an estate in Scotland does not allow her employees to shoot magpies or destroy their nests, the result being, she says, that her cattle do not suffer from the Warble Fly.
R. J. WELCH. Belfast.
KESTBEL FEEDING WHILE HOVERING. The Kestrel is common in this neighbourhood, but until recently I never
saw one devouring its catch in mid-air. The bird in question soared Tip from the ground grasping one end of an enormous earthworm. Then with
great rapidity it jerked its beak down between its feet and drew up the
dangling worm, tearing about an inch or so off it. The process was repeated until the entire worm had been disposed of.
ANNE L. MASSY. Galteemore, Baily, Co. Dublin.
RAT IN FLOWER GARDEN. Happening to look out of my window at 5-30 a.m. I saw a rat sitting
on its haunches breakfasting from a clump of pinks about to burst into bloom. Bud after bud was nipped off and held squirrel-like in the fore paws to be comfortably nibbled. Ou looking at the clump later I found over 100 buds had been eaten, the outer sheath being rejected. From the number of dried-up cases on the path it was evident that, with this rat at any rate, feeding on buds of the pink was not a passing whim, but a seasonal custom.
May it not be that some of the fruit buds and gooseberries which birds are accused of devouring are really due to the rat.'
ANNE L. MASSY. Galteemore, Baily, Co. Dublin.
NIGHT HERON IN COUNTY CORK. We received for preservation a fine specimen of a male Night Heron
(Nycticorax n.nycticorax), shot on the river Aragadeen, near Timoleague; Co. Cork, on the evening of May 6th in the dusk.
ROHU & SONS. Cork.
WRYNECK (JYNX T.TORQUILLA) IN COUNTY CORK. A male specimen of the Wryneck was found wounded nenr Ballyhooly,
Co. Cork, on November 14th, 1925. This bird has been obtained on 5 or
6 occasions during the last 30 or 40 years in various parts of Ireland, mostly in the North and West, but as far as we can trace there is no record of it
being obtained in this county of Cork. ROHU & SONS.
Cork.
HERRING SPAWNING GROUND IN COUNTY DOWN. Every year in September shoals of herring, in spawning condition,
arrive on the inshore grounds off the foot of the Mourne Mountains between
Annaiong and Cranfield Point, County Down. At this period the luggers are laid up and the herring are fished for in open skiffs or yawls, shallow nets only being used/ The capture of the herring in this condition is not to be commended. The fishermen are frequently wading knee deep in
spawn, and ripe fish, after being caught, spawn in the boats. Herrings select a hard rocky bottom to
spawn on which they find in this district.
It is the only well known food fish whose ova sinks and attaches itself to the bottom. In the first week of October, myriads of herring fry are to be
found, a little over an inch long, in every creek and bay along the County Down Coast, moving North us far as the Copeland Islands. It is at this time that dog fish often drive great shoals of fry ashore.
Belfast. R. J. WELCH.
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