106 Mr. T. J. Moore on 



Dr. Adams. The former is still rare in collectious. Its occur- 

 rence, therefore, in the living state in this country cannot be 

 regarded otherwise than as an important event in the annals 

 of British Ornithology, It is with great pleasure that, by the 

 permission of the Committee of this Institution, I am enabled 

 to bring under the notice of the British Association a remark- 

 ably fine adult male specimen lately shot in Wales. 



This bird was received at this Museum on the 12th of July 

 last, ' in the flesh,' that is to say, recently dead and not yet 

 skinned. It was in excellent feather, and presented only very 

 slight traces of shot-marks about the head. It had evidently 

 been dead a day or two, as the body was beginning to smell and 

 the feathers to become loose : the eyes also were shrivelling up, 

 and were too far gone to determine their colour, except that it 

 was very dark. 



It was immediately placed in the hands of Mr. Butterworth, 

 a skilful taxidermist of this town, who succeeded admirably in 

 skinning and stuffing it, although, as I subsequently learned, it 

 had been dead fully three days, during which the weather was 

 excessively hot, and favourable to decomposition. 



Dr. Collingwood, Lecturer on Botany at the Liverpool School 

 of Medicine, kindly examined for me the contents of the pro- 

 ventriculus and gizzard. He found therein turnip-seed and un- 

 ripe seeds of the Furze ( Ulex) only, and no trace of insect food. 



Our Museum is indebted for this valuable donation to Mr. 

 Thomas Chaffers, of Great Howard Street, Liverpool, the bird 

 having been shot by a labourer on a farm held by him on the 

 estate of T. Madoc, Esq., called Portreuddyn Farm, situate near 

 Tremadoc, at the north end of Cardigan Bay, on land reclaimed 

 from the sea. 



The account given to ]\Ir. Chaffers by Owen Quin, the labourer 

 alluded to above, and subsequently also to myself, on a visit 

 made by Quin to the Museum, is as follows : — 



On Saturday, July 9, he was engaged ' scuffling ' turnips in 

 a field at Portreuddyn Farm, called the Trath. This field con- 

 sists of loamy sand, is close to the river Glasslyn, and one mile 

 from the sea at Portmadoc. About three o'clock in the after- 

 noon he heard at a short distance a cry with which he was not 



