Extracts from the Minute-Book of the Linnean Society. 557 
pistrelle of French authors” (Linn. Trans. vol. 16.), induced him to 
examine specimens of the common Bat of the North of Ireland; 
which hitherto, like that of England, up to the period of Mr. Je- 
nyns’s paper, has been considered the Vespertilio murinus of Lin- 
nzeus, as well as of recent continental authors. 
This examination led to the same conclusion as that of Mr. Jenyns, 
the common Bat of Ireland proving identical with that of England, 
and consequently with the V. Pipistrellus of the Continent. | 
Observations on the habits, &c. of this species, when at large and 
in captivity, were also given in detail, and were followed by some 
remarks on the Long-eared Bat (Plecotus auritus) as observed in 
Ireland. 
The occurrence of the Larus Sabini in Ireland on two occasions 
was next adverted to. Of this bird two specimens only had pre- 
viously been recorded as met with in the Eastern Hemisphere, both 
of which were obtained by Captain Sabine at Spitzbergen. The 
specimens which formed the subject of the present paper were ren- 
dered peculiarly interesting from being in the plumage of the first 
year, in which state the Larus Sabini had not before come under 
the inspection of the naturalist. The appearance presented by the 
species at this age was described with great minuteness, and also 
the differential characters by which it may at all ages be distin- 
guished from its congener the Larus minutus. 
The specimens described are contained in the Museums of the 
Natural History Society of Belfast and the Royal Society of Dublin. 
From the examination of a specimen of the Cygnus Bewickii, 
killed in the North of Ireland, and preserved in the Belfast Museum, 
the author stated that he was led to discover that some of the cha- 
racters by which this species has hitherto been distinguished are 
erroneous. ; 
The principal character pointed out as such was the number of 
rectrices or tail-feathers, which are described in the Linn. Trans. (vol. 
xvi. p. 445, et seg.), Ilust. of Orn. (part 6.), Illust. of Brit. Orn., &c., 
to be 18, though they are in reality 20. The correctness of the view 
