School: Scoil na mBráthar Sligeach (Sráid na Céibhe) (roll number 16585)
- Location:
- Sráid na Cé, Co. Shligigh
- Teacher: An Br. Ó Cearbhaill
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0161, Page 199
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- Bird-Lore
Out of all the birds of Ireland the only one that builds its nest on the sand is the sand-lark. In building its nest this bird has not much bother. it simply lites on a suitable bit of sand above high water mark so that when the tide comes up to the highest point it will not harm the nest. When this is done it flops its wings about in the sand until a round hole is made. The next thing it does is, it gathers some broken shells and arranges them around and inside the nest. In this way it makes its nest look very nice.
In the summer if you were going along a lonely shore you would be sure to see a lot of these nests in which there is usually four to six small black dotted eggs.
When these birds see anyone approaching the nest they immediately fly and if you try to rob the eggs they will start soaring about your head. In this way they try to provent you taking the eggs. If a person takes up an egg out of the sand-larks nest to look at it and leave it down again, when the bird comes back it will know that the egg was handled and it will be rolled out of the nest and deserted.
