Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland, 373 



in the present instance their points were blunt. The pectoral 

 fin is not well represented in the figures ; and the dorsal is 

 placed too far behind, its exact position being, as far as the 

 eye can judge, just above the centre of gravity. As the proper 

 situation of this organ is an important character of the spe- 

 cies, it is carefully given in the figure which accompanies this 

 paper. (Plate VII.) 



I am sorry that, with so favourable an opportunity, I am not 

 able to add anything on the subject of the internal structure 

 of the animal ; but after having bargained with the possessors 

 for the bones, especially of the head, when they should have 

 finished their exhibition to the public, they were afterwards 

 sold without my knowledge for a higher price. 



Perhaps the manner in which this whale was taken may in 

 some degree illustrate its history, for it has been observed 

 that most of the cetaceous animals taken in England have run 

 themselves on shore ; a circumstance which has been ascribed, 

 with much appearance of probabihty, to the influence of sick- 

 ness. On the 29th of March in the present year, the speci- 

 men here described was seen to approach and strike its head 

 against a rock on the east shore of Looe Island ; and the blow 

 was followed by a discharge of blood, it is believed from the 

 mouth, since no wound was afterwards discovered. It after- 

 wards moved off into free water, but returned to the shore, 

 among the rocks of which it became entangled ; thus afford- 

 ing the two or three men who were present an opportunity of 

 fastening a rope round the root of its tail. As the tide re- 

 ceded it was left dry, and died in about the space of six hours. 

 Polperro, 1842. 



XL. — The Birds of Ireland, By Wm. Thompson, Esq., 

 Vice-Pres. Nat. Hist. Society of Belfast. 

 [Continued from p. 230.] 

 No. 13. — HirundinidcB, 

 Common Swallow, Hirundo rmtica, Linn. This species is 

 by far the most common of the Hirundinidce in Ireland. It ar- 

 rives the second in order, the sand martin preceding it. The 

 first week of April is the earliest time I have known it to ap- 

 pear about Belfast, the second week of that month being the 

 ordinary period, and seldom is it looked for in vain upon the 

 tenth day*. 



* From newspaper paragraphs it would appear that it occasionally 

 comes earlier. In the Belfast Commercial Chronicle of April 1835, it was 

 stated that swallows had been seen about Larne on the 2nd of the month. 

 The contributors of such notices rarely discriminate the different species of 

 Hirundo, and the term swallow is used generically, or applied to the three 



