124 ^^^ Irish Naturalist. November, 1924. 



an article on the " Courting Display of the Fulmar, "l Mr. Henry Boase 

 describes these flights very accurately. As each bird left the ledge ol rock, 

 it soared upwards and seawards until it was perhaps 100 yards from the 

 cliff face, then swinging round in a wide circle the bird swooped at a 

 terrific speed towards the nesting place, as if to dash itself against the 

 cliff face ; when but a few yards from this the wings were vigourously 

 used as a brake, and the bird appeared to be about to alight, when 

 suddenly it shot upwards for perhaps 20 or 30 feet, repeating the circuit ' 

 time after time, but finally alighting, when another bird took its place in 

 the air. Whether the young one took its turn in the performance or not 

 I could not be sure. Mr. Boase suggests that the Fulmars may find it 

 difiicult to land on the cliffs, but it appeared to me to be part of the game 

 to pretend to land and then rise vertically with the updraft along the cliff 

 face. When the wings were acting as a brake, the primaries could be seen 

 extended like the fingers of one's hand, and at a distance it appeared as 

 if these alone, and not the whole wings, were in motion. 



A, W. Stelfox. 

 National Museum, Dublin. 



Spotted Crake in Co. Louth. 



On 17th September of this year Mr. A. Beresford Swan shot a specimen 

 of the Spotted Crake, Porzana porzana (Lin.) near Dundalk, and has kindly 

 submitted the skin to me. Since the publication of Ussher and Warren's 

 " Birds of Ireland," in 1900, I have not observed any instance of this 

 bird's occurrence in Ireland. In that work upwards of sixty Irish-taken 

 specimens of the Spotted Crake are cited, three of them having been 

 obtained in County Louth. 



Nevin H. Foster. 



Hillsborough, Co. Down. 



Localities for Irio statices and Dasychira pudibunda. 



Two instances have come to my notice this year of moths turning 

 up in districts for which they are not recorded by South in his " Moths 

 of the British Isles." 



In the first case I saw in June and July several Forester Moths in 

 the valley between Kilmashogue and Three Rock (Co. Dublin). I 

 obtained a female, and have at present caterpillars from eggs laid by her. 



In the second case I found on a Broad-leafed Willow on the Clare 

 bank of the Shannon, about two miles above Limerick, a Pale Tussock 

 caterpillar, which I still have. This was about the middle of August. 



A. M. GWYNN, 



13 Palmerston Road, Rathmines. 



[Mr. A. W. Stelfox informs us that he has also taken the Green 

 Forester Moth [Ino statices) in Co. Dublin, at the head of Glenasmole. 

 — Eds]. 



1 British Birds, July, 1924, p. 47. 



