2o8 The Irish Naturalist. [August, 



the Azores. Again, the curiously intercrossed Continental ranges of the 

 Hooded and Carrion Crows deserved some delineation. It is disappoint- 

 ing to find " Kurope, excepting extreme north "—at once too little and 

 too much — the sole definition of habitat accorded Corviis corone. To come 

 nearer home, it is an encouraging fact that upon the subject of the Irish 

 fauna our author has been at pains to compile his information from the 

 best sources ; but here, too, it is to be feared that he has sacrificed too 

 much to compression; e.g., we read that the Blackcap "in Ireland 

 breeds locally in nearly every county." Mr. Ussher in 1894 recorded it 

 as known to breed regularly in four counties and occasionally in five 

 others ; there was therefore a wide margin remaining to be filled. Mr. 

 Swann's boiling-down process occasionally also mars his descriptions. 

 The male Crossbill's plumage is described as " suffused with light crim- 

 son " ; the fine clear yellow, which several ornithologists believe to 

 indicate his full maturity, despite Mr. Seebohm's conjecture that it 

 belongs, perhaps, to " old and barren birds," is not mentioned. The 

 Pheasant is likewise assumed to need no description ; although, as the 

 author rightly observes that most of our Pheasants are of hybrid descent, 

 it might have struck him that some mention of the distinguishing marks 

 of a pure-bred Phasiantis colchicns could not be absolutely uncalled for. 

 Nor would descriptions oi\\i^ young Pied Wagtail and Blue Titmouse, 

 which diflfer much from the adult females, have been superfluous. The 

 Black-headed Gull is said to breed "all round our coasts." This is mis- 

 leading, for its breeding places are generally inland. Among the Jack- 

 daw's nesting sites, rookeries and rabbit-burrows should have been 

 mentioned (by an odd slip this bird's habitat is stated to be the " Eastern 

 Palsearctic region ") ; and the description of the Willow-wren's nest as 

 •' rarely on ground " will surprise many, and possibly puzzle not a few. 

 The author's list of birds does not include Tunius migratorius or Chionis 

 alba, both obtained in Ireland of late years under circumstances that 

 seemed to indicate actual migration ; they might at least have received 

 a place in the Appendix, in which thirty such doubtful " Britishers" as 

 the Golden-winged Woodpecker {Colaptes auratus) are decorously shelved. 

 Our author adopts ** trinominals " for each of his seventeen sub-species 

 Thus our indigenous Dipper is Cinclus cinclus aqualicus (Bechst.), and 

 *' Loxia curvirostra pityopsittacus (Bechst.)," is the Brobdingnagian title of the 

 Parrot Crossbill, of which handsome bird it is fervently to be hoped that, 

 no new variety needing a quadrinominal appellative will be discovered. 



C. B. M. 



