Letters, Extracts, Notices, S^c. 183 



is a species which loves the open sea^ and never willingly 

 enters so much as a bay or an estuary ; yet one example has 

 been obtained in Co. Down and another on Lough Erne in 

 Co. Fermanagh — the first recorded occurrences in Ireland ; 

 while Mr. Henry Evans informs me of one obtained on the 

 island of Jura — the first in Scotland, I believe. As for the 

 Eork-tailed or Leach's Petrel [Procellaria leucorrhoa) , Mr. 

 Williams, of Dublin, had received twenty-seven specimens 

 between Sept. 28th and Oct. 9th, while many others are 

 chronicled from various places. Manx Shearwaters {Puffinus 

 anglorum) also have been more frequent inland than is cus- 

 tomary, even in autumn. At least three examples of Xema 

 sabinii have been obtained, and one of these, sent for my in- 

 spection by Mr. E , E. Coles from Lymington, Hants, is a fully 

 adult bird, only two such being pieviously known to me as 

 having occurred in the British Islands. There has also been a 

 great arrival of Grey Phalaropes, and, coincidently with the 

 presence of some of the largest flocks of this species, a con- 

 siderable number of the Long-tailed or Buff'on's Skua 

 {Stercorarius parasiticus) have been noticed, upon which I 

 propose to make a few remarks. 



On 20th October a Long-tailed Skua was captured on some 

 flooded meadows near Christchurch, Hants, and shortly after- 

 wards forwarded to the Zoological Society by Mr. Edward 

 Hart — the first time the species had ever been represented in 

 the Society's Gardens, where I inspected it a few days 

 later. In a letter addressed to Mr. Sclater, dated 8th Nov., 

 Mr. Hart gives some interesting details, from which it 

 appears that on the 21st October he obtained two more 

 living examples ; while at different times he observed num- 

 bers, five being on view at once, and over twenty were killed 

 in Hampshire. The greater number of these were adult 

 birds, but most of them had moulted their long tail-feathers, 

 though some still retained them, in a worn condition. A 

 few^ days later all these Skuas had left. Through Mr. W. 

 B. Tegetmeier, the British Museum received a specimen of 

 Buffon's Skua from Worcestershire and another from Ilfra- 

 combc in Devonshire, both of which I have examined, one 



