54 DUBLIN NATUIL\L HISTORY SOCIETY. 



breast of the European woodcock arc marked with large spots and zig- 

 zag transverse lines and bars of black on a pale dull yellow and gray- 

 ground. These marks are altogether absent in the American bird, whose 

 colour on the breast is bright ferruginous ; the back and scapulars are of 

 a lighter colour, and not so deeply mai'ked. The small specimen which 

 is now exhibited was obtained from ;N"ova Scotia. 



One of the Mr. O'Connells, of Grena, near Killamey, informed me 

 that some years since he had seen nailed on a door by one of the game- 

 keepers a jay, identical with the American blue jay {Garrulm cris- 

 tatus). 



In the month of June, 1855, when for a few days at Killamey, I met 

 on the grounds of the Lakeview Hotel a man with a young bird of the 

 spotted eagle {Aquila ncevia). I was anxious to obtain it, but he said 

 that he had promised it for sale to a gentleman whose return he was 

 waiting from boating on the lake ; his price was £1. On the following 

 morning he called to leave the bird with me ; but both at the Hotel and 

 at Mr. Boylan's (Lord Kenmare's steward), in whose charge he wished 

 to leave it, it was refused, as I was absent. I could obtain no trace of 

 the bird, as the man had to return to his home westward in the Eeeks, 

 in which part of the country, in a mountain towards Cahirciveen, he had 

 taken the bird from the nest. Its much smaller size, and the peculiar 

 spotted markings which characterize the young state and bird of the first 

 year left no doubt on my mind as to the species. 



The Mergansers have been noticed to remain in Kerry throughout 

 the year ; and the Scaup Duck {Anas marila), with the eggs and the 

 young, has been taken in an inland lake. 



The bird which I now present to the Society, the Homed or Sclavo- 

 nian Grebe (Podiceps cornutus, P. ohscurm, in the young state), and 

 which, in Thompson's Birds of Ireland, is quoted — ''can be positively 

 announced only as an occasional visitant," was lately obtained at the 

 mouth of one of the streams near Lough Caragh, county of Kerry, where, 

 no doubt, others will be met. 



Through Europe this has the widest range of all the Grebes ; but it has 

 been considered as extremely rare in the British Isles. The markings 

 are very perfect in this specimen; but the dark friU and the bright 

 chestnut- coloured feathers or horns, which characterize the species, are 

 not shown except in the breeding season. It is distinguished by its 

 bright chestnut rufous- coloured neck, and by the rufous-coloured marks 

 passing from the base of the bill to and through the eye to the occiput. 

 This at once distinguishes it from the rare species, the Eared Grebe, P. au- 

 ritm, which has not the rufous-coloured neck ; the markings of the bill 

 are also characteristic, the bill of P. cornutus being black, tipped with 

 yellow, and the lower mandible marked with yeUow, the belly silvery, 

 and of a soft, silky texture. 



Mr. J. B. Doyle remarked on the extreme interest of these observa- 

 tions. He thought it evident that, if we had more certain records of 

 this kind, many birds at present marked in our list as rare stragglers 



