VOL Tx.| RICHARD MANLIFFE BARRINGTON. 183 



specimens were constantly fonvarded to ensure correct 

 identification of the various birds referred to. The 

 earher reports, for instance, bristled with notes of the 

 passing of large numbers of " Wrens," " Flycatchers," 

 " Tits," and " Linnets," though it was clear that only 

 in a very small minority of the cases could the birds 

 referred to under any of these names have been correctly 

 described. W^ien in 1886, at More's suggestion, the men 

 were asked to corroborate their observations by the 

 frequent sending of legs and wings of the birds found 

 Idlled, the value of the results of the inquiry became im- 

 measurably greater. But by the end of 1887 the British 

 Association, vmder whose auspices the inquiiy had hitherto 

 been conducted, considered that enough expense had been 

 incurred in the printing of the lightkeepers' voluminous 

 reports, and so brought the series to a close just as its 

 results had begun to look most promising. 



This was a great disappointment to many ornitholo- 

 gists ; and Barrington quickly resolved that, so far as 

 Ireland was concerned, the inquiry and the publication 

 of results should go on. From 1888 onwards the whole 

 expense of the Irish Migration Reports was therefore 

 borne by him alone. 



The work so absorbed him that though, in 1890, he was 

 associated with A. G. More, R. J. Ussher, and Robert 

 Warren as the proposed joint authors of a new work on the 

 Birds of Ireland, he soon found it advisable to with- 

 draw his name from that undertaking and concentrate 

 his ornithological attention on the migration schedules 

 and specimens. 



His large book on the Migratio7i of Birds as observed 

 at Irish Light-stations embodies the result — at least 

 up to 1898, for the accumulation of facts and specimens 

 went on after the publication of the book as unceasingly 

 as before. Perhaps the chief feature of the book — as 

 compared with other works on the same subject — is that 

 by printing the lightkeepers' " Reports " in full, Barring- 

 ton publishes all his data, so that no risk is incun^ed of 



