191 2 Notes. 183 



other species. It was not that there was a blending of the two character- 

 istics but a real distinction between one andt he other. If one had placed 

 before him a score, say of Blue-headed, and the same number of Yellow 

 Wagtails freshly killed in the flesh all in immature plumage, but birds 

 which had been properly identified before death hy some reliable elite, 

 e.g., difference of voice, I cannot but feel that the differences in the two 

 species could be established in regard to plumage markings and other 

 characters to be made out on the dead specimens. Many of us are wont 

 to manufacture difficulties in arriving at conclusions regarding identifi- 

 cation of birds because of our implicit belief in the infallibility of the 

 Museum Label. I may be hyper -sceptical, but better err on that side 

 than to be too credulous. 



The University, Sheffield, C. J. Patten. 



Late Spring occurrence of the Sky-lark at tlie Tuskar Lighthouse. 



Between i and 1.15 a.m. on Saturday morning, May i8th, Mr. Power, the 

 lightkeeper on watch, captured a Sky-lark as it struck the Tuskar Light- 

 house lantern. In rapid succession followed a Sedge -Warbler and a Spotted- 

 Flycatcher, all three birds being obtained within fifteen minutes. No other 

 migrants were observed that night. The Lark proved to be a large adult 

 male, with huge testicles, the tubules of which showed on histological exami- 

 nation to be actually congested with countless swarms of ripe sperma- 

 tozoa. From the condition of the genitals one would not think the bird 

 purported effecting a much longer pilgrimage, but rather that it would 

 alight at the earliest opportunity and commence mating. Possiblv it 

 may have lost its mate, the latter perhaps having lost its life through 

 • t)»ing devoured by a stoat or a rat when hatching. The male then in its 

 eagerness to procure another mate may have become stimulated to 

 migrate. That it had flown some distance and not simply crossed directlv 

 irom the mainland of Co. Wexford is shown by the fact that the gizzard 

 and in fact the whole digestive tract were completely empty. The Sky- 

 lark migrates into Ireland in March, and in smaller numbers in April, 

 to remain and breed, and it is also a spring emigrant ; but it is more likely 

 that the birds which appear towards the end of April and in May are 

 birds of passage bent on pushing further north for breeding purposes, 

 I am not aware of a date from a lighthouse lantern for this species as late 

 as the one herein recorded. Mr. Barrington in his " Migration of Birds " 

 Analysis of Reports, 1881-97, p. 105, gives April 20th as the date of 

 the latest specimen secured, viz., from the Maidens in 1890, but " a few 

 observations are usually chronicled in May." Mr. Eagle Clarke in his 

 " Studies in Bird Migration" vol. i., p. 130, gives March to May 7th as 

 the period of migration of the Skylark as a bird of passage to northern 

 Europe, 



The University, Sheffield, C. J. Patten, 



