84 The Irish NaUiralist. April, 191 2. 



NOTES, 



ZOOLOGY. 



Irish Reed Warblers. 



I have just received a letter from Mr. Ussher telling me that in the Scien- 

 tific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society, vol. xii., 1909, p. 19, Mr. Barrington 

 records the occurrence of a female Reed -Warbler which was killed striking 

 at Rockabill lighthouse on October 20th, 1908. This bird is mounted in 

 Mr. Barrington' s collection. Furthermore, that a leg and a wing of another 

 Reed-Warbler have since been identified among the numerous specimens 

 collected by the same ornithologist. I had a notion that a Reed -Warbler 

 had been recently obtained at Rockabill, having remembered that Mr. 

 Barrington made mention of the fact when I saw him last autumn in 

 London ; however, when I failed to find the record in the Museum List 

 (last edition by Ussher, 1908), Irish Naturalist, Zoologist, British Birds, 

 and some other periodicals, and never dreaming that he would bury this 

 important record in the Proceedings of a Society not available to many 

 readers of general ornithology, I concluded that perhaps Mr. Barrington 

 was perpetrating a joke. But he was in earnest, and so my two Tuskar 

 specimens must therefore rank as the third record, hardly third and fourth 

 records, seeing that my birds were obtained almost simultaneously. My 

 best thanks are due to Mr. Ussher for drawing attention to this matter and 

 for supplying me with the data, especially as we have not got vol. xii. 

 of the Proceedings above-mentioned in our libraries here. 



The University, Sheffield. C. J. Patten, 



" Birds New to Ireland." 



Professor Patten says {Irish Naturalist, March, 1912, pp. 49-5i)> that he 

 obtained three birds at the Tuskar not heretofore included in the Irish list. 

 He has overlooked the occurrence of the Reed Warbler at Rockabill, 

 October 20th, 1908, Scientific Proc. Roy., Dub. Soc, vol. xii. (N.S.), p. 19, 



As to the Blue -headed Wagtail, immature specimens are so difficult to 

 distinguish from those of the Yellow Wagtail that the late Professor 

 Newton, of Cambridge, dechned to name them for me. If the white eye- 

 stripe is the test, then the Blue -headed Wagtail was obtained at the 

 Tuskar, September 19th, 1895, but I declined (see Migration of Birds) to 

 add it ta the Irish list on the strength of my doubtful specimen which 

 has most, if not all, the characters mentioned by Professor Patten. 



Alauda cantarella is apparently a Mediterranean form of the Common 

 Skylark, a species more variable in wing measurements, etc., than probably 

 any other British bird. Professor Patten kindly showed me his specimen, 

 and I should hesitate to include this form in the Irish list, as it may be only 

 a pale specimen of the Common Skylark. 



Fassaroc, Bray. Richard M. Barrington. 



