324 The Irish Naturalist. 



condition, in fact quite fat. The bill has shrunk very much in the drying, 

 when fresh it was thicker-looking, and the end so widened out that it 

 was quite spoon-shaped, and hollowed inside." This form of Macrorhampjis 

 has not hitherto heen recorded for Europe, but it is very doubtful if it is 

 even of subspecific value. The two iom\^ g risen s and scolopaceiis cannot 

 be distinguished by their plumage, and even the more reliable measure- 

 ments of bill, tarsus, and wing appear to completely intergrade, as 

 shown by a series of examples in the Museum of Cambridge University. 

 Thus a specimen procured by Mr. Kendall at Great Bear Lake measures 

 only — bill, 2 in., tarsus 1*3 in., wing, 57 in., whereas a specimen obtained 

 at York Factory measures — bill, 2-95 in., tarsus, 1-5 in., wing, 5-9 in., in 

 fact it was the largest bird of the series examined. Mr. Coburn's speci- 

 men measures — bill, 2-65 in., tarsus, i-6 in., wing, 6 in. — G. E. H. BarretT- 

 Hamii^TON, Trinity College, Cambridge 



Sabine's Snipe — A Correction. — I have just had a letter from my 

 friend, Mr. Arthur Brooke, of Killybegs, informing me that the Sabine's 

 Snipe fdark form of Common Snipe) mentioned in the last issue of the 

 Irish Nahiralist as having been shot in Co. T3'rone, was shot, as a matter 

 of fact, on the mountains near Bonny Glen, Inver, Co. Donegal, by Mr. 

 R. W. Peebles.— H. C. Hart, Carrablagh, Co. Donegal. 



Night-Heron (Nycticorax griseus), near Belfast. — I have 

 recently had the pleasure of examining in the flesh a Night-Heron. It 

 was shot on the evening of the 26th October on that piece of waste land 

 just outside Belfast known as the "People's Park." In the moonlight 

 the gentleman who shot it mistook it for an owl by its flight, which he 

 describes as slow and lazy. It is a j^oung bird in the beautiful spotted 

 plumage ; sex not ascertained. To Ireland it is a very rare visitor, Mr. 

 More stating that only ten or twelve occurrences are known. This 

 specimen has been most naturally mounted by Mr. Sheals. — Robert 

 Patterson, Malone Park, Belfast. 



Little Auk(IVIerg"uIus alle) in Belfast. — On November 8th a bird 

 which had been picked up alive in the yard of a house in the middle of 

 Belfast, was brought to me for identification. It was a Little Auk in 

 winter plumage and quite uninjured. The species is very rarely seen 

 here. — Robert Patterson, Malone Park, Belfast. 



MAMMALS. 

 Squirrels in Ireland. — I wish to draw attention of readers of 

 the Irish Naturalist to the remarkable increase of squirrels in Ireland. 

 Localities in which they were quite unknown a few years ago are now 

 plentifully stocked and will soon, doubtless, send off colonies to occupy 

 neighbourhoods that are yet unmolested. Demesnes in this locality, 

 such as Brittas, Aclare and Whitewood, in which, to my own knowledge, 

 they were quite unknown, have, within the last two or three years, 

 become a favourite haunt of these animals. During a late excursion to 

 the famous abbey and ruins at Bective in this county, I was highly 

 amiised by the surprising agility of the squirrels. One, as if to show off 

 his acrobatic abilit}^ kept pace with our horse by skipping along from 

 twig to twig on top of the hedgerow, along the roadway; while another, 

 more grown, sat making up his toilet on the topmost spray of a well- 

 grown beech, unmindful of the swinging of the bough in a soft summer 

 breeze. Bective and Clady, with all their historic and prehistoric asso- 

 ciations, just required this last touch (a little mammalian life in the 

 picture) to make the scene truly exquisite. And yet, I was told by our 

 "jarvey" that plentiful as squirrels are now, about Clady, a few 

 years ago they were quite unknown around there. "They came," he 

 said, " and no one knew how." Probably from about Dublin, where, I 

 believe, the woods have been inhabited for many years.— OwEN Smith, 

 Nobber, Co. Meath. 



