8 Mr. W. Thompson on the Fauna of Ireland. 



in the descriptions of the species. This is the first Iri*h specimen of 

 the true Wild Goose or Grey Lag, that I have seen, the Bean Goose 

 being in this country, as in England and Scotland, the common spe- 

 cies, and with the White-fronted, to be seen in our markets every 

 winter. Anser ferus is the scientific appellation bestowed on the 

 wild-goose noticed in some of our county histories, but as it there 

 appears to the exclusion of the two more common species just named 

 and has not a place in Mr. Templeton's catalogue of Irish Birds, I 

 introduce it here. At the same time there is little doubt that the 

 true A. ferus is the species alluded to in Rutty 's ' Natural History of 

 Dublin' as the "larger sort which stays and breeds here, particu- 

 larly in the bog of Allen," vol. i. p. 333 ; similar allusions to it ap- 

 pear in one or two other county histories. 



Mr. Jenyns considers it " highly improbable" that the domestic 

 goose has been derived from this species. (Manual, p. 222.) After 

 a careful comparison of the individual under consideration with the 

 domestic species, I cannot perceive any difference except in the su- 

 perior size of the latter, the result I presume of domestication. The 

 form of the bill in the A. ferus is quite identical with that of the 

 tame goose, and at once distinguishes it from A. segetum and A. al- 



bifrons*. 



Reptilia. 



Chelonia Caouana, Schweigger. Testudo caretta, Linn. 



I/Oggerhead Turtle, Shaw, Gen. Zool. vol. iii. p. 85, pi. 23. 



To the kindness of H. H. Dombrain, Esq. of Dublin, I owe the op- 

 portunity of examining a turtle of this species hitherto unnoticed on 

 the British shores, which was obtained on the coast of Donegal in 

 May 1838, and soon afterwards came into his possession. The spe- 

 cimen, about a foot in length, was taken by a man engaged in col- 

 lecting sea- weed for manure, and who finding the hook at the end of 

 the long pole used for " hauling in the rack," had caught in some- 

 thing, carefully drew it towards him, when the captive proved to be 

 a living turtle whose eye the hook had entered. Mr. R. Ball in- 

 forms me that a turtle of this species in his collection was taken alive 

 in the sea near Youghal, but he has been inclined to regard it merely 



* Totanus Glareola, Temm. Mr. R. Ball has described to me a species 

 of Totanus which he saw for several years about the month of June fre- 

 quenting a stream in Glenbower Wood near Youghal, and believed to be 

 this bird. 



In the late Mr. Templeton's MS. a sandpiper considered to be of this 

 species is noticed as having been seen in the neighbourhood of Belfast, but 

 as in the previous instance in terms which do not warrant its introduction 

 to the Fauna with certainty. 



