Mr. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 181 



lected a few specimens of a digitate-leaved species of Mi- 



kania. 



Up to the beginning of June I still continued to add to my 



stock of dried specimens, and on the 9th of that month left 



the mountains, with all my collections, for the city of Rio de 



Janeiro. 



Geo. Gardner. 



Rio de Janeiro, July 14th, 1837. 



XVIII. — Contributions to the Natural History of Ireland. By 

 William Thompson, Esq., Vice-President of the Belfast 

 Natural History Society. 



No. 6. — On the Birds of the Order Insessores. 



[Continued from p. 26.] 



The Pied Wagtail, Motacilla alba, Linn.* — Is a common 

 species in this country, and though said to leave the northern 

 to winter in the southern parts of England, is in the northern 

 counties of Ireland permanently resident. One disposition 

 towards a movement may however be witnessed, which is their 

 collecting in the autumn in flocks, commonly consisting of 

 about thirty individuals. Thus have I seen them at the end 

 of September, on the borders of Lough Neagh, and have so 

 observed them come to roost upon the reeds (Arundo phrag- 

 mitis,) and the adjacent ground, on the banks of the river 

 Lagan, until after the middle of November ; but I am not 

 aware whether the portion of these buds so congregated ever 

 move southwards. Mr. R. Ball has likewise observed them 

 in large flocks in the south of Ireland about Youghal, during 

 the month of October. Towards the end of January the song 

 of the wagtail is frequently heard in the north, and occasionally 



* The pied wagtail of Ireland is identical with the M. alba of British 

 authors generally, and with the M. Yarrelli of Mr. Gould. By this author 

 a new name has been applied to it, as he states, in consequence of a species 

 peculiar to the temperate portion of continental Europe being the true 

 M. alba of Linnaeus, and from which the British species is distinct. (Mag. 

 Nat. Hist. vol. i. p. 459, New Series.) The two characters which form the 

 description of M. alba in the ' Systema Naturae,' are found in our bird. 

 These are " pectore nigro, rectricibus duabus lateralibus dimidiato oblique 

 albis," t. i. p. 331, 13th cd. 



