29 



(the present specimcn being but ten inches in length,) the animal is 

 as thoroughly armed, both vvith respcct lo scales and spines, as the full- 

 grown one. The specimen was also considered by Mr. Thompson as 

 interesting on account of its locality, it having been obtained in 

 Sierra Leone. 



Mr. Thompson also read the following notice of the Cuckoo, Cucu- 

 lus canorus, Linn., copied from his Journal, under the date of 28th 

 May, 1833. 



" On examination of three cuckoos to-day, vvhich \vere killed in 

 the counties of Tyrone and Antrim vvithin the lašt week, I found 

 them all to be in different stages of plumage: onewas mature ; ano- 

 ther (a female) exhibited on the sides of the neck and breast the red- 

 dish-coloured markings of the young bird, the remainder of the plu- 

 mage being that of maturity ; the third specimen had reddish mark- 

 ings disposed entirelv over it, much resembling the plumage described 

 by M. Temminck as assumed by 'les jeunes teis qu'ils emigrent en 

 automne', (Man. d'Orn, tom. 1. p. 383), but having a greater pro- 

 portion of red, especially on the tail coverts, than is specified in his 

 description of the bird at that age. This individual proved, on dissec- 

 tion, to be a female, and did not contain any eggs so large as ordi- 

 nary sized peas. The stomach, vvith the exception of the presence of 

 some small sharp gravel, was entirely empty, and was closely coated 

 over with hair." 



Attention was called lo the stomach of one of these birds, that the 

 hair vvith vvhich it is lined might be observed. From its close adhesion 

 to the inner surface of the stomach, and from the regularity vvith 

 which it is arranged, Mr. Thompson vvas at first disposed to consider 

 this hair as being of spontaneous grovvth ; but part of the stomach 

 having been subjected to maceration in vvater, and aftervvards vievved 

 through a niicroscope of high povver, the hairs proved, to the entire 

 satisfaction of Mr. Owen and himself, to be altogether borrovved from 

 the larvcE of the Tiger-motli, Arclia Caja, Schrank, the only species 

 found in the stomach of the bird in various specimens from different 

 parts of the country vvhich vvere examined by Mr. Thompson in the 

 inonths of May and June, 1833. 



Mr. Thompson also read a Catalogue, vvith incidentai notices, of 

 Birds new to the Irish Fauna. He prefaced his list by remarking 

 that he did not bring them forvvard as unrecorded, without having 

 previously consulted every vvork in vvhich he vvas aware that the birds 

 of Ireland are eilher particularly described or incidentally noticed ; 

 including the Statistical Surveys of the Irish counties, vvhich contain, 

 in Severai instances, Catalogues of the Birds that have been observed 

 in them. 



The Catalogue is as follovvs : 



1. Alpine Swift, Cypselus alpinus, Temm. By the ' Dublin Penny 

 Journal' of March 30, 1833, my attention vvas directed to a rara avis, 

 said to have been killed at Ruthfarnham, and preserved in the fine col- 

 lection of birds belonging to Thomas W. Warren, Esq. On calling to 



