t924. Notes. 31 



that the remains of so rare a visitor might most fittingly be oltered to 

 the Cork University Museum. 



The following extract from a letter written to ]\lr. Rcnouf by Mr. 

 Shuel gives the fullest account of the facts that seems to be available :• — 

 " There is no doubt whatever that the Great Spotted Cuckoo appeared 

 here in the month of February, 191 8. The whole history of the bird 

 is as follows : — A man named John Mahony told Charles O'Driscoll that 

 there were two strange birds flying about his farm at Castlequin, about 

 a half inile from Caherciveen. O'Driscoll went there and saw one of 

 the birds flying about wdth the well-known flight of the common Cuckoo. 

 He saw only one, though Mahony told him that the two had been flying 

 about there for about a week before. A day or two afterwards O'Driscoll 

 visited the place again and found this bird dead by the side of a hedge 

 in a very emaciated state — evidently having died of starvation and 

 exposure, for the weather was pretty hard at the time. He showed me 

 the bird at the time immediately after finding it. In the same month 

 he got a Hoopoe and had the Hoopoe mounted, but neglected to do 

 anything wdth the Cuckoo. I am afraid we did not realise what a rare 

 bird we had, but the foregoing may be accepted as being absolutely true." 



The only previous instance in which a bird of this species has been 

 obtained in Ireland is that recorded by Thompson (Nat. Hist., vol. i., 

 p. 364) of one caught alive in a much exhausted state on the island of 

 Omey, off Connemara, in the spring (probably in March) of 1842. A 

 bird seen but not secured on the Great Skellig on April 30th, 1897, is 

 believed by the best authorities on the strength of a lightkeeper's 

 description (Barrington, Migrations at Irish Light Stations, p. 597) to 

 have been of the same species. Prof. Renouf's is in any case the first 

 record of an occurrence on the Irish mainland. It is of course to be 

 regretted that the date was not recorded at the time. \^ e learn from 

 Messrs. \\ illiams and Son that the Hoopoe referred to was received by 

 them for mounting on the loth of April, 191 8. — Eds. 



Rough-legged Buzzard in Co. Wicklow. 



A very gratifymg addition has been made to the collection of Irish 

 birds of prey in the Dublin Zoological Gardens in the shape of a Rough- 

 legged Buzzard [Biiteo lagopus) that was taken in a trap at Ballinrush, 

 in the vicinity of Lough Dan, in the second week of December. 



This handsome bird — a common resident species in Scandinavia and 

 northern Russia^ — is a rare winter visitor to Ireland, its recorded occurrences 

 up to the date of its latest capture numbering only seventeen. 



International Fisheries Research. 



Some years before the w^ar broke out the states of northern and 

 wxstern Europe appointed a committee wath representatives from each 

 state to discuss the problems relating to the great fishing industry and 

 to conduct such researches as would add to our knowledge of the habits 



