38 The Irish Naturalist. [February, 



gains undoubted weight from the discovery by Mr. R. 

 Lydekker in the Dublin Museum of Science and Art of 

 two bones which he identified as belonging to this species, 

 and which were obtained from Ballynamintra cave in the 

 county Waterford 1 . These bones (through the kindness of 

 Dr. R. F. Scharff), I have myself examined and carefully com- 

 pared with recent specimens. (See p. 17 of this volume). 



In view then of the above discovery, the statements as to 

 the former occurrence of black game in Ireland undoubtedly 

 gain a weight to which in themselves they were not entitled, 

 and we can have no doubt as to the former occurrence of this 

 bird in Ireland, together with other northern species, such as 

 the Great Auk, 2 the Ptarmigan, and possibly the Eider Duck. 



It is no modern ambition of sportsmen in Ireland to add 

 the Black Grouse to the list of game-birds of the country, for 

 so long ago as 1752 3 Pocock, in describing his visit to the 

 county Antrim, wrote that "They often go over (to Scotland) 

 for game : where there is a great plenty of what is called the 

 black grouse, which Lord Antrim has brought over more 

 than once, but could never get them to breed, or keep 

 them long, so that probably they returned back." 3 



Seventy years later we have the statement of Pennant, as 

 quoted above, that ''the breed was formerly introduced out of 

 Scotland into the county of Sligo," but, as in the last case, 

 without any permanent success. 



Later attempts to introduce the species appear to have been 

 equally unsuccessful, but the details of some of them have 

 been recorded at some length by Thompson, 4 and repeated in 

 an article on " Sport in Ireland," contributed by Mr. J. K. 

 Harting 5 to the Field newspaper some twenty-three years ago. 

 Thus we read that in 1829 four brace of black game were 

 turned out by Lord O'Neill, at Claggan, Co. Antrim, but died 

 off, and so far as could be ascertained without having bred, a 

 fate which also befell a further clutch of nine brought over 

 from Scotland in 1832. In 1839, Mr. M'Donnell, of Glenarm 

 Park, in the same county, sent twice to Scotland for live black 



1 " British Fos5.1l Birds," Ibis, 1S91, p. 392. 



a See " Catalogue of Fossil Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, and Amphibians 

 in the Dublin Science and Art Museum," by R. Lydekker (1891). 



3 ■' Pocock's Tour in Ireland in 1752," ed. G. T. Stokes, 1891, page 29'. 



* Natural History of Ireland, vol. ii., pp. 35 to 37. 



• Field, March 13 1S75, p. 258. 



