1 84 The Irish Naturalist. May, 1907. 



Tufted Duck breeding on Lough Mask. 



On September 16th last year,. Mr. W. H. Good, ofWestport, Co. Mayo, 

 sent to the Dublin Museum for identification a young Tufted Duck 

 (Fuligula cristata) that he had shot a few days before on Lough Mask, 

 where 10 or 12 broods had been observed by him during the summer ; he 

 also sent an egg that he had taken there the previous July. 



Mr. Ussher, in "Birds of Ireland" (T900), mentions the establishment 



and spread of the Tufted Duck as a breeding species in Ireland, as one 



of the most interesting of recent facts of Irish ornithology, and states 



that it was not then known to breed in the province of Connaught, west 



of the Shannon and Lough Arrow. In " Birds met with on Connaught 



Lakes" {Irish Naturalist, 1905) he remarks that the Tufted Duck had 



become so numerous on the Co. Sligo lakes in the breeding time that its 



presence at that season further west might be looked for ; in the same 



year it was found breeding on Lough Conn (Warren in /. N, 1905), and 



is now recorded as breeding in the following year on Lough Mask. Mr. 



J. A. Harvie-Brown, in "Fauna of the Tay Basin and Strathmore," just 



published, draws attention to the recent spread of the Tufted Duck in 



Scotland, and gives a map of the nesting-dispersal of this duck in that 



country. 



A. R. Nichols. 

 Dublin Museum. 



Birds seen off the S.W. Coast. 



In the letter of Mr. Howard Saunders, from which I quoted in the 

 April number of the Irish Naturalist (p. 163), there is an omission which I 

 regret, as it does not give the systematic name now in use for the Great 

 Shearwater. Mr. Howard Saunders wrote: "I have not the slightest 

 doubt that the writer saw P. major, now P. gravis" The last three words 

 were omitted in the printed copy by some misadventure. 



I have since received or found further letters of Mr. Farran, containing 

 a series of observations made on four cruises, usually 50 miles and 

 upwards, off the Bull Rock or isles of Kerry. He noticed the fol- 

 lowing: — 



Great Skuas. — May, 1906 ; August, 1906 ; February, 1907. 



Pomatorhine Skuas. — May and November, 1906. 



Buffon's Skuas. — August, 1906. 



Great Shearwaters. — August, 1906 (numerous) ; November, 1906 (many). 



Fulmars. — May, August, and November, 1906 ; February, 1907. 



What a view this gives us of the little known bird population off the 



south-west extremity of Ireland ! 



R. J. Ussher. 

 Cappagh, Co. Waterford. 



