Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 159 



Lanius pomercmus is the sixth species which has earned a 

 place in the Irish list by striking the lantern of one of onr 

 light-stations, and it is perhaps worthy of note that all six 

 have occurred only at lightships or island-stations situated at 

 distances o£ from six to nine miles off-shore.- The Tearaght 

 E-ockj nine miles west of Kerry, has contributed Sylvia 

 curruca and Phyllosccpus supercitiosus ; the Fastnet, eight 

 miles south of Coi'k, CaJcarius lapponicus ; Blackropk, -co. 

 Mayo, nine miles from shore, Alauda brachydactyla ; Arklow 

 South Lightship, seven miles east of Wexford, Muscicapa 

 parva (of which three additional specimens have since been 

 obtained, all at island-stations or lightships) ; and Black- 

 water Bank Lightship, six miles distant from the same 

 county, has yielded Lanius pomeranus. All these birds have 

 occurred during the autumn migration, and nearly all in 

 October. 



To these six may be added two species of which specimens 

 have been shot by lighthouse-keepers: — The Antarctic Sheath- 

 bill, Chionis alba, at Carliugford, and several specimens of 

 a Mealy Redpoll from the Tearaght Rock, named by 

 Dr. Sharpe Linota rostrata. 



Yours &c., 



Fassaroe, Bray, BiCHARD M. Barrington. 



November 2oth, isOS. 



Sirs, — With reference to the remarks by Mr. H. J. Pearson 

 and Mr. H. L. Popham on the northern range of Motacilla 

 alba and Falco (Bsulon, will you allow me to say that in the 

 ' Zoologist '' for 189G (pp. 448, 45.2) 1 have recorded meeting 

 with White Wagtails on Tromso, and Merlins on the opposite 

 mainland, in June of that year ? Both species were breeding. 

 I saw a Merlin sitting on her nest (an old Crow's nest, I 

 believe) in a birch-tree in the Tromsdal, and a pair of White 

 Wagtails on Tromso were in a state of great excitement and 

 were carrying food. I could not, however, attempt to find 

 the nest, as it was evidently somewhere in private grounds 

 close to a dwelling-house. 



Yours &c., 



Nov. 26tli 1898. ^- ^ ' ^^^^^' 



