Collins New Naturalist Library. David Cabot

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ Plate 3

      Colony of naturalised pitcher plants on Derrychashel raised bog, Co. Westmeath

      The River Suck below Ballinasloe before joining the River Shannon

      Lough Neagh, the largest lake in Ireland. A view to the southwest, overlooking Toome and the eel traps

      The otter is more widespread and abundant in Ireland than in any other European country

       Plate 4

      A Connemara river in flood, acidic in nature, rich in oxygen, and conduit for sea trout from the nearby sea to freshwater lakes

      Mullagh More with slumped beds of carboniferous limestone. The tree in the foreground would hardly support a hanging man

      Spring gentians, one of the glories of the Burren, Co. Clare

      Rahasane Turlough, Co. Galway, one of Ireland’s most celebrated wintering wildfowl wetlands

       Plate 5

      Glen Inchiquin, Co. Kerry, with Lough Inchiquin and Uragh Wood in the distance

      Willow and alder carr woodland, near Newport, Co. Mayo

      Uragh Wood. Co. Kerry – an ancient sessile oak woodland

      Silver birch woodland, Killadangan, near Westport, Co. Mayo

       Plate 6

      Abandoned farmland in west Mayo. The ‘fossilised’ lazy beds or old potato ridges testify to the former importance of these lands

      Greenland white-fronted geese, formerly confined to raised and blanket boglands but now found principally on improved grasslands as here on the North Slob, Co. Wexford, their most important habitat in Ireland

      A mosaic of farmland with intact hedgerow systems, Co. Fermanagh

      Ballydavid Head, Co. Kerry, with Smerwick Harbour in the distance. One of the wildest stretches of coastline where the Atlantic waves have eaten back the rocks to create dramatic cliff scenery. A favoured habitat of the chough

       Plate 7

      Inner Galway Bay where long sea inlets penetrate the land providing excellent conditions for the cultivation of oysters

      Cliffs of Moher, Co. Clare, where the horizontally bedded sandstone cliffs provide breeding sites for an abundance of seabirds

      Banna Strand, Co. Kerry, with the Dingle peninsula in the distance. One of the many fine beaches and associated sand dune systems found along the Irish coastline

      Great Blasket island, Co. Kerry. Occupied until 1952, the island is now an important haul-out area for Atlantic grey seals

       Plate 8

      Increasing numbers of barnacle geese are wintering in northwestern and western coastal areas

      Tory Island, Co. Donegal, one of the remotest and bleakest of inhabited islands of Ireland. It is an important observation point for migratory seabirds

      The gannet is the largest seabird in Ireland, and numbered some 24,700 breeding pairs in five colonies during 1984–8

      The power of the Atlantic is slowly sculpting and forming new coastal landscapes along the western seaboard

Editors’ Preface

      Ireland has a long and proud tradition of natural history, and some of its leading figures have made outstanding contributions to the knowledge and understanding of its important segment of the European flora and fauna. Some of its most distinctive features have achieved fame as gems of the international scene of natural wonders: the fantastic limestone pavements of the Burren with their unique plant assemblage; the desolate blanket bogs and rocky heaths of Mayo and Connemara; the magnificent mossy oak woods of Kerry and Cork; the spectacular seabird islands and headlands; and the greatly varied series of lakes and fens among both lowlands and mountains.

      There is a large literature on all this, yet few Irish natural historians have tackled the subject as a whole. Geraldus Cambrensis ambitiously had a shot within his all-embracing work on Ireland Topographia Hiberniae around 1188, but it was not until 1944 that the doyen of Irish naturalists, Robert Lloyd Praeger, tried again with his Natural History of Ireland. This is, as its sub-title said, ‘a sketch of its flora and fauna’, and though valuable as a summary, it still left a need for something much more comprehensive. The New Naturalist Editors were mindful of the scope for a modern treatment of the subject within the series, but it seemed to require such a breadth and depth of knowledge and insight that a suitable author was not easily to be found.

      Happily, David Cabot proved to be just the person for the task. He has applied his unrivalled all-round personal experience of Ireland, its wildlife and physical features, and his assiduous literature research, to the compilation of this volume. Since plants and animals know no political frontiers, it has the particular merit of dealing with Ireland as a geographical and ecological whole. Little escapes the author’s breadth of grasp, and enthusiasts for all the main groups of plants and animals will find much to excite and inform their interest. The main habitats are all comprehensively explored, and the mysterires of the special Irish features – such as turloughs, slobs and callows – revealed. For those craving further knowledge, a very full list of references is given. David Cabot’s book does justice to the rich variety of Irish wildlife, and its illustrations convey the similarly diverse beauty of the country it inhabits.

      As well as providing an in-depth treatment of the fascinating Irish flora and fauna, their habitats and their history, Ireland examines the topical concerns of nature conservation and human impact. We are delighted to present it as a much-needed and worthy addition to the other regional works in the series, and as a tribute to the many generations of Irish naturalists whose labours have helped the author to paint this portrait.

Author’s Foreword

      My endeavours for this book began in 1959 when I ‘fell out of the sky’ into County Wexford, in a sort of horizontal manner from the Fishguard-Rosslare Ferry, one warm, sunny August afternoon. Making my way northwards, the first arresting ornithological surprise was a hooded crow frisking some rubbish on a heap of refuse outside New Ross. They were a rarity where I had just come from.

      That innocent encounter set me thinking. Why were these crows so numerous and living so far south in Ireland, while Britain was bereft of them at the same latitudes? Their only claw-hold was in Scotland, a more northerly territory than the most northern extremity of Ireland. What extra inducements were on offer in this low green island, some 80 kilometres west of Wales? Not only did these grey crows buck the code of ‘conventional’ distribution behaviour, but other birds and some mammals were at it too, and so were plants. Straight away I was intrigued by the natural history questions posed by islands.

      Islands, because of their remoteness, СКАЧАТЬ