Notes. 6 1 



others as regards the rest, he might have saved the obliging editor a good 

 deal of his valuable space. We extract the following species, as being 

 among the rarer shells recorded : — Donegal, Lima hians, Liicinopsis undata^ 

 Tellina squalida, Psafiwiobia vespertina, Scrobicularia tenuis, Ceratisolen legumen, 

 Solen vagina, Trochus gramdatus, Adeo7'bis subcarinatus, Aplysia punctata. Dub- 

 lin, Pecten tigrinus, Scrobiculatia prismaiica, Thracia papyracea, Pholas parva^ 

 Barleeia rubra, Homalogyra rota, Cceciim trachea, Pleurotoma costata, P. brachy- 

 stoma, P. nebula, Cylichna acuminata, Aplysia punctata. Blsewhere, Pecten 

 septemradiatus (Derry) ; Pinna rudis (Wexford and Down) ; Diplodonta rotun- 

 data (Galway) ; Isocardia cor (Waterford and Louth). ^ 



Odostomia albella, Loven, in Irbi^and. This little shell, which, so 

 far as I am aware, has not been hitherto recorded in a recent state from 

 Ireland, occurred to me in shell-sand lately gathered on the shore at 

 Groomsport, Co. Down — a single example only was obtained. In a fossil 

 state its only Irish record is in a paper which I recently laid before the 

 Royal Irish Academy, in which it is noted as occurring in estuarine clay 

 at West Bank, Belfast lyough. In both instances the species was kindly 

 determined by Mr. J. T. Marshall of Torquay. The same shell-sand 

 yielded — Crenella decussaia, Lima subauricidata, Modiolaria discors, Astarte tri- 

 angularis, the four British species of Lacuna, Rissoa retictdata, R. cingillus, 

 Odostomia lactea, 0. interstincta, 0. pallida, and other commoner forms, all of 

 them in a fresh state. — R. Lloyd Praeger. 



B LRDS, 



Arrivai, of Summer Migrants. — Some readers of the Irish Naturalist 

 may like to know the dates on which the summer migrants have arrived 

 in this neighourhood this year. The following are from personal ob- 

 servation: — Wheat-ear, March 22nd, between Kenmare and Killarney; 

 Swallow, April 6th, Rossbeigh; Landrail, April 26th, Cahirciveen; 

 Cuckoo, April 28th, Cahirciveen. — W. V. Delap, Cahirciveen, Co. Kerry. 



Swallows were seen at Barne, and also near this towm on April i6th for 

 the first time this year. — Robert Hunter, Clonmel. 



The Tree-creeper (Certhia familiaris) as a Song-bird. — Is it a 

 fact that "most of our writers on ornithology describe the Tree-creeper 

 as a non-singing bird?" I am aware of one popular author (well-known 

 in Ireland) who by implication does so; but as he pays the same in- 

 different compliment to both our common Wagtails, I can only assume 

 that his definition of the word "song" is somewhat exacting. The 

 Tree-creeper's melody sounds to my ear like the syllables, "ticka-tee-tee- 

 tee-tee-tee-ticka-ticka," and is usually uttered as the bird makes a pause 

 in its progress up the tree-trunk, and holds its head sideways in a 

 languishing attitude. I have the following noted as dates for first hear- 

 ing the Tree-creeper's song in different years: — 1882, March 30th; 1885, 

 March 20th; 1886, January ist (but not heard again until March 13th); 

 1887, March 19th. Since the latter date, not having been out of Dublin 

 in early spring, I have taken no notes on the subject.— C. B. Moffat, 

 Dublin. 



The Spotted Crake (Forzana maruetta), etc. in Co. Louth.— The 

 district lying inland from Dundalk, and extending on the one side to 

 Crossmaglen, and on the other to Ardee, abounds in marshes, for the 

 most part formed by bogs which have in days past been cut away, and 

 which, owing to the want of fall for main drainage, remain unreclaimed. 

 Many of these, even to the most experienced snipe-shot, are almost in- 

 accessible, being composed of a floating sedge which a dog can hardly 

 cross, and hence when, ten years since, I spent much time in pursuit of 

 long-bills, it was sometimes my good fortune to come upon specimens of 

 the rarer of the grallatores. The Water-rail [Ralhis aquaticus) was to be 

 met with everywhere, and I have frequently seen the young birds when 

 duck-shooting in the month of August. In the same district I secured 



* Carlingford is in Louth, not Down, as twice stated in the present paper. 



