122 The Irish Naturalist, June, 
people. The most absurd rumours were freely circulated and credited. 
One far-seeing clergyman preached a sermon, in which he cited this 
unfortunate snake as a token of the immediate coming of the millennium ; 
while another saw in it a type of the approach of the cholera morbus. 
Old prophecies were raked up, and all parties and sects, for once, united 
in beheving that the snake foreshadowed ' the beginning of the end' 
though they very widely differed as to what that end was to be. Some 
more practically-minded persons, however, subscribed a considerable 
sum of money, which they offered in rewards for the destruction of any 
other snakes that might be found in the district. And three more snakes 
were not long afterwards killed, within a few miles of the garden where 
they were liberated. The remaining two snakes were never very clearly 
accounted for ; but no doubt they also fell victims to the reward. The 
writer, who resided in that part of the country at the time, well remem- 
bers the wild rumours among the more illiterate classes, on the appear- 
ance of those snakes ; and the bitter feelings of angry indignation 
expressed against those who dared to bring them to Ireland." 
Snowy Owl on Tory Island. 
On April 5th I received from Tory Island, Donegal, a fine specimen 
(male) of the Snowy Owl {Nyctea scandiaca). Measurement of wings 
from tip to tip of longest primaries, 57I inches — ^or two inches short of 
5 feet ; weight, 3 lbs. 9 oz. There are about thirty Irish records in the 
19th century, and a few since — the great bulk of them being, as might be 
expected, from the northern and western counties, especially Mayo. 
Looking over the index to the Irish Naturalist which I published in 191 1, I 
find under " Snowy Owl " that " vol. xviii., p. 106 " should be vol. xviii., 
p, 160. I also notice that on p. 100 of the same volume Mr. Ussher gives 
several records of this species, Montagu's Harrier, Rough-legged Buzzard, 
and Greenland Falcon, none of which appear in the index to that volume 
under the names of these birds, but the communication is simply indexed 
under '* Ussher " and under " Birds." This defect in the original index 
is of course responsible for a similar imperfection in mine, which purports 
to be only an index to the indices of eighteen volumes. 
Richard M. Barrington. 
Fassaroe, Bray. 
Extermination of the Capercailie, 
In the review of Parts IX. and X. of the " British Bird Book " {antea 
p. 55) it is stated that " Mr. Jourdain, by an obvious slip, states that the 
Capercaillie was exterminated in Scotland and Ireland, during the second 
half of the nineteenth century.' " Permit me to point out that the 
mistake in question was not made by me, and that on p. 2 I have distinctly 
stated that " in Scotland and Ireland it survived till the latter half of the 
eighteenth century, but then became extinct." 
F. C. R. Jourdain. 
Clifton, Derbyshire. 
