12 Mr. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 



ance the name lacunosum seems to have originated. But cha- 

 racters which are not subject, so far as I know, to any obser- 

 vation, are afforded by the appendices corolla, by their colour, 

 by the form and length of the style, and by the surface of the 

 seeds. 



Dr. Grisebach. 

 Berlin, March, 1837. 



III. — Contributions to the Natural History of Ireland. By 

 William Thompson, Esq., Vice-President of the Belfast 

 Natural History Society. 



No. 5. — On the Birds of the Order Insessores*. 



[Continued from Magazine of Zoology and Botany, ii. p. 440.] 



The Redbreast — Sylvia Rubecula, Lath. — Is very common 

 in Ireland. Well known as are its habits, a few notes illus- 

 trative of them in the neighbourhood of Belfast may be se- 

 lected: and first, with regard to its familiarity. In the 

 very mild winter of 1831 — 32 a redbreast very frequently joined 

 a friend and his lady residing in the country at breakfast, 

 and without invitation, eat of the bread and butter on the 

 table, and when not so employed, made itself quite at home 

 by perching on the toasting-fork at the fire. In summer it 

 built in one of the out-houses, and visited the kitchen daily ; 

 its song was in August, poured forth in the hall. In this 

 house also a redbreast once built its nest in the fold of a bed- 

 curtain in an occupied chamber : such a proximity being held 

 undesirable, the room window was closed against the intruder, 

 and in consequence the first egg was laid outside on the bare 

 window-sill. This circumstance caused pity for the bird, and 

 the egg was placed in the nest, where the usual number was 

 duly deposited and incubated. One young bird only was pro- 

 duced, which was overfed to such a degree that it grew to a 



* The order in which the species appear in Mr. Jenyns's ' Manual of the 

 British Vertebrata' is followed in these papers. In the MS. of the first 

 of the series on the Raptores, one, two, or three synonyms were given to 

 each species, with the view that some one of them might be known to every 

 reader. The editors however considered one scientific appellation sufficient 

 in every instance ; and being thus limited I adopt that used by Temminck 

 as the most widely known, although I am partial to a much greater sub- 

 division of genera than appears in his ' Manuel.' 



