44 The Irish Nahiralist. iNlarcli, 



surface, we note that the series of cheek-teeth in the Ringed 

 Seal are small and delicate in shape, and they are arranged 

 with their long axes in a straight line. In the Common 

 Seal these teeth are of a more massive type and placed in a 

 slanting position, their long axes being parallel to one 

 another. In front of the posterior suture of the maxillary 

 bones there are two little holes or foramina, one on each 

 side, in the Common Seal. In the Ringed Seal these 

 foramina lie behind the suture on the palatine bones. 



National Museum, I)ul)liii. 



THE IRISH DIPPER, JAY, AND COAL-TITMOUSE. 



BY A. R. NICHOLS, M.A., M.R.I. A. 



A RECENT examination by experienced ornithologists in 

 England of a large number of specimens of the Dipper, Jay 

 and Coal -Titmouse has shown that the Irish forms of 

 these three birds are distinct from the British. 



That there were slight differences in coloration between 

 Irish and British specimens of the Dipper and the Jay had 

 been known for a long time, for Dresser' had remarked that 

 the single Dipper from Ireland in his collection was not the 

 British Dipper, but agreed closely with specimens from 

 Sweden ; and as regards the Jay the following statement 

 ap])cared in the second edition of A. G. More's " List of 

 Irish Birds," published in 1890 by the Dublin Museum : — 

 " Mr. E. Williams has noticed that the Irish Jay is of 

 a warmer and richer colour than the English bird." 



Dr. E. Hartert, who has examined the Dippers, regards 

 the Irish Dipper as a distinct sub-species which he has 

 named- Cinclus cinchis hihcrnicus. He states that Irish 

 Dippers have " wider black borders to the feathers of the 

 upper side " than British Dippers, " so that the back appears 

 almost uniform black in freshly moulted examples, and the 

 rufous pectoral area is more restricted " than in British 

 Dippers, but wider than in typical Scandinavian Dippers. 

 Specimens of the Irish Dipper are in the Dublin Museum 

 from Counties Down, Dublin, and Tipperary. 



' " .\ Histor\- of tin- Birds of Europe," vol. ii., 1874. 

 2 " Die Vttgel der paliiarktischen Fauna," 19 10, p. 790, and British 

 Birds, October, 19 10, p. 136. 



