Sabine' s Snipe. 13 



in the first place tliere is its extremel}^ curious distribution. 

 I have been at some pains to make a complete list of all 

 recorded occurrences of Sabine's Snipe, with the result that I 

 have notes of (in all) about fifty -five examples, v^^hich have 

 been stated to have been either obtained or observed from time 

 to time.' Probabl}' others have been obtained, but they have 

 either been unrecorded or have escaped my notice, as Pro- 

 fessor Newton informs me that when he was in Dublin in 

 i860 there were about half a dozen Sabine's Snipes stuffed 

 (infamously) and placed on a board in the Museum of Trinity 

 College, not one of which had been recorded, nor did anyone 

 seem to know their history. Of the odd fifty-five examples 

 w^hose capture has been from time to time recorded, thirty- 

 one (or about three-fifths) hail from Ireland, twenty-two from 

 England, one from Scotland, and one from the Continent of 

 Europe. The bird should, therefore, possess a peculiar 

 interest for Irish ornithologists — whose country it favours so 

 strangely in its appearances. The Irish examples have been 

 recorded from sixteen out of the thirty-two Irish counties, 

 and from almost every part of Ireland, except the south-east 

 (the east coast can only claim one). In the North, Derry 

 heads the list with five examples (some of them only seen, 

 and not obtained), Donegal claims four, and Tyrone one. 

 In the West, Mayo claims one, Galway one, Clare one, and 

 Kerry two. In the South, Cork claims three, and Waterford 

 one. Of the central counties (taking them from north to 

 south) examples have been recorded from Cavan (one), West- 

 meath (one). King's County (one), Kildare (one), Queen's 

 County (one), and Tipperary (one). The interesting feature 

 of the distribution of Sabine's Snipe in Ireland would appear 

 to be its apparent absence (at least as far as can be ascertained 

 from the available records) froni the eastern counties of 

 Antrim, Down, Armagh, I^outh, Meath, Wicklow, Carlow, and 

 Wexford. The only eastern Irish example of which I have 

 any note is that recorded from Dublin by Mr. H. Blake Knox 

 {Zoologist, 1866, p. 302). Several Irish examples can not be 

 traced to any particular county. 



■■ Twenty-five occurrences have been collected by Mr. J. E. Harting 

 in the Field, for Dec. 10, 1870, p. 521, and I have been much indebted to 

 his list of occurrences up to 1870. 



