246 The Irish Naturalist. December 



Squirrels in Co. Louth. 



In Mr. Pentland's notes in the Irish, Naturalist, igi2 (p. 146). he implies 

 that Squirrels were not known in the Co. Louth till within the last fifteen 

 or sixteen years. My experience is that they were known there much 

 longer ago. Between the years 1864 and 1875 I was living near Bessbrook, 

 only a few miles distant, and often visited the Killeavy district and Ravens - 

 dale Park, and saw squirrels there. There was in those da^ys a wood on 

 the slope of Slieve Gullion, near Carn Lough, which has since been cut 

 down, v/here the Squirrels bred and were abundant. 



H. W. Lett. 



Loughbrickland, Co. Down. 



Late stay of Swift 



Despite the coldness of August the Swifts did not depart before their 

 usual time. About the middle of August the main body left, but several 

 were still flying about up till the 26th. From this date till 5 

 September only two or three were observed here, and daily afterwards, 

 only one was visible till 12th. With one exception, this is my latest 

 observation of the Swift here, having noted one on 13 September in 

 1905. Mr. H. L. Orr informs me that he saw a small party of Swifts in 

 Belfast up till 1 1 September. Tiie latest record I can find for this bird 

 in Ulster, is 8 October (7. N. xii., p. 320). 



Nevin H. Foster. 



Hillsborough, Co. Down. 



|"The Field of 31 August, and 7 September, contains notices from the 

 south and east of England, of the stay of Swifts through August, and in 

 one case on i September. In the issue of 14 September, Mr. John 

 Campbell records that on the evening of 9 September numbers of Swifts 

 were flying round Lancaster, with no sign of a migrator^.' movement 

 among them, and that on 24-26 August he saw numbers at St. Anne's- 

 on-Sea, on the Lancashire coast. — Eds.] 



The Tree -Pipit as an Irish Bird. 



I would enter a caveat against Professor Patten's suggestion (p. 212 

 supra), that the two young Tree-Pipits which he obtained at the Tuskar 

 last September are evidence tending to prove that this species breeds 

 in Ireland. The addition of the Tree-Pipit to our list of autumnal strag- 

 glers was to be expected, from the analogy of so many other species that 

 are regular summer visitants to England, but whose occurrences at the 

 Irish light -stations have been — so far as is known — exclusively autumnal. 

 The Pied Flycatcher, Red-backed Shrike, Lesser Whitethroat, Reed 

 Warbler, and "VVryneck are five well-known instances — to which the Tree- 

 Pipit may be added as a sixth — of summer visitants that breed regularly 

 in England, though not in Ireland, but which have been proved to turn 

 up at uncertain intervals at the Irish light -stations in autumn, though 

 not in spring. I am not, of course, forgetting the solitary Pied Flycatcher 

 obtained in Ireland in spring — so long ago as 1875 — by Mr. Robert Warren, 



