248 The Irish Nahiralist. September, 1903. 



The Dublin Squid. 



In the Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical 

 Society, vol. xlvii. (1903), W. K. Hoyle, Keeper of the Manchester 

 Museum, gives an interesting account of his recent examination of the 

 type specimen of Loligo eblana:^ Ball. This species, described b)' the late 

 Robert Ball in 1841, from a specimen found in Dublin Bay, was regarded 

 by him as a Loligo, and subsequently by Jeffreys as the female of his 

 Ommastrephes sagittatns. It is now generally placed in the genus Lodaropsis, 

 and known as Todaropsis eblana ; the only other species of this genus is 

 T. Veranyi, described by Girard in 18S9 from a specimen oft" the coast of 

 Portugal. The result of Mr. Hoyle's investigation is to confirm an 

 opinion, formed by others as well as himself, that these two species are 

 identical, and, therefore, all the specimens of the genus Todaropsis are 

 referable to one species, which, in accordance with the rules of nomen- 

 clature, should bear the name T. eblance (Ball) The geographical distri- 

 bution of this species, as at present known, is as follows : — Belfast 

 Ivough, Strangford Lough, and Dublin Bay ; North Sea ; Plymouth ; 

 coasts of Spain and Portugal ; Mediterranean Sea. 



Green Sandpiper in Co. Mayo. 



On June 30th I shot a Green Sandpiper {Totanus ochropus, L.) on the 

 Yellow River, Foxford. I should think the bird uncommon at this 

 season of the year. It was a solitary bird, in perfect plumage, and had 

 been seen in the locality previously. I now have it preserved. 



Godfrey Knox. 



Foxford, Co. Mayo. 



The Great Bustard in Tipperary. 



In the Lrish Naturalist for July (p. J ^^ supra) we see a paragraph casting 

 doubt on the Great Bustard shot in Tipperary being a genuine wild bird. 

 We received the same week in December a very fine specimen from 

 Glamorganshire. As two years have elapsed since the fifteen Great 

 Bustards were liberated in Norfolk, and in a recent number of the Field 

 every single liberated bird has been accounted for, we may safely 

 conclude that the Irish specimen has not had an assisted passage ; we 

 may also remark that both specimens, Irish and Welsh, have been care- 

 fully examined by the gentleman who brought the birds to Norfolk, 

 and his conclusion was that they were bona fide travellers. Of course 

 there will always be a certain amount of doubt when there is only one 

 occurrence of a species in a locality, but in this instance the two birds 

 were seen for some weeks, and the bird was shot in Wales in the same 

 week in which the Irish specimen was obtained. We cannot find any 

 account of the species having been turned down in Ireland, as was the 

 case with the Tawny Owl obtained in the North of Ireland. 



Wii,i,iAMS & Son. 



Dame-street, Dublin. {^ 



^2- 



