1S96.] Notes. 575 



FISHES. 



The Shade Fish or IVIaigrre (Sciaena aquila) on the Irish 

 Coast. — Mr. Thonihill, of Castle Bellingham, recentl}- obtained a speci- 

 men of this rare fish in the salmon-nets, near Annagassan, in Dundalk 

 Bay. He sent it in the first place to Messrs. Williams & Son, of Dame- 

 street, to have it mounted for himself, but, at their suggestion, he 

 has kindly presented it to the Dublin Museum, as there was no 

 specimen of the species in the Natural History collection. It may be of 

 interest to note that this is only the second record of this fish having 

 been observed on the Irish coasts, a specimen having been once caught 

 in the harbour of Cork. Maigre, the French name of the fish, is some- 

 times applied to it, and refers to the bloodless appearance of its flesh. It 

 is a large fish, somewhat like a huge perch, and of great strength, the 

 present specimen measuring over three feet in length, and weighing 

 about 30 lbs. Its stomach, Mr. Williams tells me, was full of flat-fish. 



The genus Scueua has a very wide distribution, and though most of the 

 species are marine, some of them inhabit the lakes and rivers of the 

 United States. The fish known to Americans by the name of the Drum 

 or Thunder-pumper on account of the peculiar noise it makes, is one of 

 these. The Shade-fish has of all the species of Stucna the widest range, 

 since it has occurred at the Cape of Good Hope and on the south coast 

 of Australia. 



R. F. SCHARFF, Dublin. 



BIKDS. 

 Ouall in Co. Dublin.— In the early part of June, this year, a 

 Quail's nest was found in a meadow near Dundrum by some farm boya, 

 who unfortunately managed to break all the eggs (ten in number) except 

 one, which they gave to me, Messrs. Watkins and Doncaster identified 

 the ^gg, 



H, Bui,i,oCk, Dundrum, 



The Wood-Sandpiper (Totanus grlareola) in the Co. Wlck«< 

 low. — While out shooting on Calary bog (which is at least some half 

 dozen miles from the sea) on the first of August, my dog sprang three 

 bifds of the sand«snipe appearance ; not recognizing what they were, I 

 emptied my choke barrel on one of them, and got him — the others were 

 so wild that I could not mark them. On more careful examination I 

 found the bird obtained to be the Wood-sandpiper, a bird as far as I can 

 make out only once before recorded to have been shot in Ireland. Sun- 

 day being the following day I could not of course look out for the others, 

 but was up on the spot at dawn on Monday morning, and had the luck 

 to see and obtain another, which was by itself, its mate probably being 

 shot in the interval, and doing service for a snipe to some fellow sports- 

 man. The two birds are being preserved by Mr. Williams of Dame- 

 street. If any reader could give me information of the distribution of 

 this bird in Ireland I should feel much obliged. 



Ern£:st Bi^ake; KnoXj Bray. 



