r6 The Irish Naturalisf. [Janirar}^ 



THE WRYNECK IN IRELAND. 



BY L^NA. GYLES. 



Amongst the birds which have been added to the Irish avi- 

 fauna during the last twenty years, lynx torqidlla, the Wryneck^ 

 is conspicuous. 



Up to- the autumn of 1877 it was common in England, rare 

 in Scotland, and unrecorded from Ireland ; since then it 

 has occurred five times in the latter countr\^ 



The first specimen is in the Museum of Science and Art, 

 Dublin. It w^as shot on the 5th of October, 1877, near 

 Dunmore, Co. Waterford, by Mr. Ernest Jacob, by whom it 

 was presented to the Museum. 



In the autumn of 1878 the second Irish specimen was shot 

 on the island of Rathlin O'Birne, two miles off the west coast 

 of Donegal, b}^ the light-keepers — Mr. John Tottenham, and 

 Mr. George Gillespie. 



Mr. Gillespie, writing to Mr. Barrington in 1892 says : " I 

 think it was in October, 1878, that the Wryneck was shot on 

 Rathlin O'Birne. I first saw it on the island about i p.m., 

 went home for m}^ gun and returned, accompanied by John 

 Tottenham. The bird was near the same place and pitched 

 close to where Tottenham was, and he fired and shot it. He 

 stuffed it, but I find on inquir}^ that it went to loss. We did 

 not know it was a Wryneck then, but the principal keeper 

 got one on North Arran and sent it to 3^ou, and it w^as the 

 same kind; I knew it when I saw it." 



Eight years later — in 1886 — the third specimen occurred, 

 and is recorded in the " Report on the Migration of Birds on 

 the Irish Coast" (p. 39), for that year as follows: — "Aran 

 Island North Light-house ; October 6th, 2.30 a.m., wind very 

 light, S.W., blue sky, cloudy, misty. One killed striking 

 lantern. [Received in flesh a male Wryneck, very fat.]" 

 This bird was forwarded by Mr. Thomas Fortune, principal 

 light-keeper on Aran Island North — a light-station nine 

 miles from shore off the coast of Galway — and is now in Mr. 

 Harrington's collection. 



