158 Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 



colder months only. I have four specimens in my collection, 

 of which two are adults. 



{d) Stercorarius parasiticus, or Buffon's Skua, more rare 

 than S. poinatorhiirus and less so than the preceding, 

 with which, I think, it is easily confounded. It occurs 

 iu autumn and winter. I have eight specimens in my col- 

 lection, all young ones, killed from Septeiuber to December; 

 and with the exception of an adult preserved in the Rizza 

 Collection at Siracusa, in Sicily, no adult specimen has 

 occurred in Italy, j 



According to my belief, all the species of Stercorarius are 



stragglers and rare in Italy. 



Yours &c., 



E. Arrigoni degli Oddi. 



Ca' Oddo (MoEselice-Padova), 

 November 12tli, 1898. 



Sirs,— In 1893 I received from Mr. Patrick Cullen, 

 Master of the Blackwater Bank Lightship, county Wexford, 

 the leg and wing of a bird killed by striking the lantern on 

 the night of the 16th of August. The wing had a close 

 superficial resemblance to that of an immature Whcatear, 

 though the remarkably thick and scutellated tarsus was 

 totally unlike a Wheatear's. The leg and wing remained in 

 my collection until, in the course of preparing the Migration 

 Report for 1893, it became necessary to set the question 

 beyond doubt. I then sent the leg and wing for identifica- 

 tion to Mr. Howard Saunders, who recognized them as 

 belonging to the Woodchat Shrike, Lanius pomeranus, and 

 returned them to me, at the same time remarking the 

 strong superficial resemblance of the wing to that of 

 a young Wheatear. He also sent to me for' comparison a 

 young male from his collection, obtained at Seville on 

 July 9th, 1869, and the wings and legs of the two agree 

 exactly. 



This is the only known instance of the occurrence of the 

 Woodchat in Ireland ; and, having regard to the distribution 

 of the species in Europe, its occurrence at an Irish lightship 

 at the commencement of the autumnal migration is ab- 

 normal. 



