284 Miscellaneous. 



NOTES ON IRISH BIRDS. 



Quail, Perdix Coturnix, Lath. This species, considered migra- 

 tory in England with the exception of some few individuals that 

 winter in the south*, has of late years remained permanently in the 

 north of Ireland, and during winter occurs in considerable numbers. 

 Throughout this season, quails are daily exposed for sale in the town 

 of Belfast, and several brace often exhibited together in a single 

 shop. In stating the following particulars respecting the number of 

 these birds shot by a sporting relative during part of one winter, all 

 that were obtained by him within that period are not enumerated, 

 but merely those on the days mentioned, with the ** returns" of 

 which I was favoured. On November 11th, 1834, my friend shot 

 two and a half brace, and on the 1 3th two brace of Quails, and on 

 the latter day saw altogether about seven or eight brace ; on the 19th 

 he obtained three brace. On December 10th he killed four and a 

 half, and saw altogether about ten brace ; on the 15 th he bagged 

 three birds. These were all obtained in their summer haunts in the 

 county of Down, within six miles of Belfast. The same gentleman 

 about the 1st of January 1835, shot four brace of Quails in one day 

 near Larne in the county of Antrim, and saw many more : he re- 

 marks, that he never met with more of these birds when partridge 

 shooting early in the season or in September than he has done 

 throughout the month of December 1834 ; they were however con- 

 sidered by him to be rather more numerous than usual that winter. 

 It must be added, that in no instance above mentioned did my friend 

 go purposely in pursuit of these birds ; he was snipe- shooting, and 

 merely when walking from one bog to another, the Quails occurred. 

 In the winter of 1836-37, a person of my acquaintance in one day 

 shot ten brace of Quails in stubble-fields bordering Belfast Bay, to 

 the north of Carrickfergus. During the winter of 1831-32, and 

 subsequently, they have chiefly attracted the attention of my friend 

 and myself. 



Pigmy Curlew, Tringa suharquata, Temm. This pretty species, 

 characterized in the latest works of authority as a " rare visitant" to 

 Great Britain, is one of our regular autumnal migrants to the north 

 of Ireland. It first attracted notice here nearly twenty years ago, 

 when an acute observer, the late John Montgomery, Esq. of Locust 

 Lodge, distinguished the species from its congeners, and called Mr. 

 Templeton's attention to it. Since that period, the Pigmy Curlew 

 may be set down from observation as a regular bird of passage, 

 chiefly occurring in the months of September and October. I have 

 never known it to be so plentiful in Belfast Bay as during the Sep- 

 * Montagu and Selby. 



