28 The Irish Naturalisf, January, 1912. 



Notices of Irish Birds. 



Recent numbers of contemporary journals contain the following notices 

 of Irish birds : — Common Scoter {Oedemia nigra) again breeding in Ireland 

 (H. Trevelyan, in British Birds for August) ; Great Black -backed Gull 

 {Lams niarinus) nesting on inland lakes (R. Warren in Zoologist for Sep- 

 tember, H. Trevelyan in British Birds for October, and J. Steel Elliott in 

 Zoologist for October) ; the same species increasing as an Irish bird (R. J. 

 Ussher in British Birds for November) ; White Wagtails {Motacilla alba) 

 seen or migration in Co. Wexford in September (H. F. Witherby in British 

 Birds for December), and at Bartragh Island, north Mayo, in August (R. 

 Warren in Zoologist for October) ; White-tailed Eagle {Haliaetits alhicilla) 

 no longer breeding in Ireland, and notes on the decrease of the Golden Eagle 

 (R. Warren in Zoologist for September, and F. C. R. Jourdain in British 

 Birds for October) : Sooty Shearwaters {Puffinus griseiis) seen off the Mayo 

 Coast (the Duchess of Bedford in British Birds for October). With respect 

 to the recent discovery of the Fulmar breeding in Ireland, H. F. Witherby 

 offers some comments in British Birds for October, and in the same journal 

 for December R. J. Ussher has a note on the Irish name (Cawnoge) of this 

 bird. To the Selborne Magazine for October, Henry Garnett con,tributes 

 an illustrated paper entitled " Nature Notes from the Irish Coast," dealing 

 with observations, chiefly of birds, made at Dunmore, Co. Waterford. 



GEOLOGY. 



Marine Shells in Inland Kitchen-middens. 



In corroboration of Mr. Hinch's interesting paper {supra, p. 189), I can 



state that in my several cave explorations I have almost invariably 



found sea-shells in caves that had been inhabited by man. In the 



kitchen -midden of the Carrigmurrish near Whitechurch (between one and 



two miles from Cappagh) I found shells of oysters, limpets, whelks, 



cockles and scallops associated with pebbles specially selected from the 



sea gravels, of which there are examples in the National Museum. The 



Carrigmurrish is six miles from Dungarvan Harbour. In the Ballyna- 



mintra cave, still further inland, I found mussels and limpets. Oysters 



and other marine shells were found in the Edenvale and Newhall caves 



near Ennis in Co. Clare, and in my experience are of common occurrence 



in the, kitchen-middens of the ancient Irish, showing how fond they were 



of shell-fish for food. It is only near the sea, however, as at Shandon 



near Dungarvan, and among the sand-dunes, that I have met with 



continuous layers of shells, which are the chief indications of ancient 



settlements, and are associated with bones of mammals and fishes, and 



burned stones. 



R. J. Ussher, 



Cappagh, Co, Waterford. 



