256 The Irish Nahiralist. [November, 



Mr, Ussher may consider that he has sufficient warrant in 

 following Mr. Howard Saunders ; but thi^: does not vindicate 

 the consistency of the book, for it may fairly be asked whether 

 any vSpecies has been admitted by Mr. Saunders to the British 

 list on evidence so slight as Mr. Ussher adduces for saddling 

 the Irish list with Alauda cristata. 



The facts as to the Crested L^ark are as follows : — The Dubli7i 

 Painy Journal of February 27th, 1836 (Vol. IV., p. 276), 

 contained an announcement of the shooting of an example of 

 that species near Tane}^ Co. Dublin, the communication being 

 signed " W. R.," and accompanied by a woodcut representing 

 thebird. Thompson, on the strength ofthis anonymous evidence, 

 admitted the species to the Irish list, but it was subsequently 

 excluded by More, and indeed the case for its admission at 

 that period was so obviously w^eak as to call for no further 

 examination. In 1893, however, some fresh evidence on the 

 subject was adduced, showing that the writer of the letter to the 

 Dublin Pejiny Jottrnal was none other than the now celebrated 

 war correspondent, Sir W. H. Russell, who was a boy of fifteen 

 when he shot the supposed Crested Lark and forw^arded 

 the notice and figure for publication. Whether this revelation 

 of the writer's identity makes the case for admission stronger 

 or weaker than it was before is a question on which opinions 

 will differ ; but the circumstances at least show that there w^as 

 room for error. It is true that the bird was taken for identifi- 

 cation to "a Mr. Colville, a member of the Royal Dublin 

 Society," w^ho pronounced it a Crested I^ark, and showed his 

 young interrogator a figure of that species in an illustrated 

 translation of Buffon. But it remains to be proved that Mr. 

 Colville was any better at natural history than his pupil. An 

 ornithologist would surely have made some effort to induce 

 his young friend to have so valuable a specimen preserved, 

 but it is evident that Mr. Colville did nothing of the kind. 

 By Mr. Ussher's courtesy, we are enabled to add to the known 

 facts of the bird's story the following details, communicated 

 by Sir W. Russell in a letter dated December 24th, 1897 : — 



Dear Sir, — You ask me what I did with the bird which is causa causans 

 of our correspondence, and my answer is that probably we ate him. I 

 am sure I did not send it to the Trinity College Museum. I did not enter 

 Trinity till 1838-9. My trophies of the chase were usually handed over 

 to the cook, and all I can remember about Alauda cristata I have already 

 imparted to you.— Yours, &c., W. H. RusSi;i«if. 



