1:U BRITISH BIliDS. [vol. ix. 



any — perhaps over-confident — statement of conclusions 

 founded on those data carrying more A\'eight \\-itli careful 

 readers than an examination of the facts really warrants. 

 As the evidence is so largely cumulative, this is an 

 important merit. 



One result of the inquiry Avas the formation of the 

 interesting Fassaroe Museum, in Mhich the rare birds 

 received from lighthouses, and the legs and wings of the 

 more common species, were arranged and preserved. As 

 many as sixteen of the species represented in this collection 

 (or eighteen if we include two that are suspected of liaA-ing 

 received some " assistance " on their passage) had not 

 been proved to visit Ireland at all until the lightkeepers 

 sent them to Fassaroe. The eighteen birds (bracketing 

 the doubtfuls) obtained for the first time in Ireland 

 through Barrington's lighthouse correspondents are the 

 following : — 



Greenland Wheatear Red-breasted Flycatcher 



Lesser \^n:utethroat [Black Snowbird] 



Yellow-broA\-ed Warbler Greenland Redpoll 



Melodious Warbler Little Bunting 



Reed- Warbler Lapland Bunting 



Aquatic Warbler Eastern Skylark 



Pallas's Grasshopper- Warbler Short -toed Lark 

 Dart ford Warbler Shore -Lark 



Woodchat Shrike [YcIIoaa -billed Sheathbill]. 



Though a few of these — such as the Woodchat— are 

 represented in the collection by legs and m ings, nearlj- all 

 were sent entire, the lightkeepers having recognised them 

 as probably rare enough to be Morth preserving, and this 

 in itself is no small tribute to the acumen de\'eloped in 

 so many of the men by Barrington's encouraging influence. 



In 1890 came off th.c enterprising expedition to Rockall. 

 originally planned by his friend J. A. Harvie-Browni and 

 himself, and in great measure financed by them. Its 

 ornithological results, though negative, were not un- 

 important, the hope that the island miglit prove to be a 



