October, 1924. The Irish Naturalist. loi 



NOTES AND RECORDS OF SOME OF THE IRISH 



BIRDS IN THE COLLECTION OF THE 



LATE HENRY BLAKE KNOX. 



BY F. W. ROGERS BRAMBELL, B.A., SC.B., PH.D. (dUBLIN), 



Science Research Scholar of the Royal Commission for 



the Exhibition of 185 1. 



Henry Blake Knox was born in the year 1844. Throughout 

 his Ufe he was deeply interested in, and devoted much of 

 his time to, the study of ornithology. Being also a keen 

 wildfowler, it was natural that he should amass a large 

 collection of local birds, chiefly sea-birds. Many of the 

 specimens he obtained are of considerable interest to Irish 

 ornithologists^ and include such rare visitors to our island 

 as the Kite and the Greater Snow Goose. During the 

 sixties and early seventies Mr. Blake Knox published many 

 interesting papers and records, chiefly in the Zoologist. 

 Subsequently, however, he seldom published any. records 

 or particulars of his observations, or even communicated 

 them to other ornithologists. That his silence was not 

 owing to a lack of material is evidenced by the number of 

 unrecorded rarities with which his collection was enriched. 

 Henry Blake Knox died at the age of seventy-three, on 

 21 Juty, 1917- His entire collection passed into the posses- 

 sion of Mr. W. Williams, of Dame Street, Dublin, and only 

 then did its full importance become known. The original 

 stands of the mounted birds and many of the labels of the 

 skins bear numbers. The Misses Blake Knox tell me that 

 these numbers referred to an intended catalogue which their 

 father never made. The only data, therefore, available are 

 those written on the stands of the mounted birds and the 

 labels of the skins, in most cases in Mr. Blake Knox's own 

 handwriting, and those published by him betw^een 1864 and 

 1871. Many of the birds, including the Kite, are undated, 

 or are marked with the month but not the year. The rarer 

 of those which are not recorded probably were obtained 

 after 1871, as Mr. Blake Knox would have recorded them 

 himself in all probability if they had come into his possession 

 during his period of literary activity. 



