Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 287 



M. Black has informed me, that in the winter of 1832-33 ? he 

 for a long time witnessed a pair of these birds feeding upon 

 the ha\vs of some old thorn-trees at his seat Stranmillis, near 

 Belfast ; — he managed to approach within about fifteen paces, 

 so as to see them very well. In his paper on the Birds, &c. 

 of Donegal, Mr. J. V. Stewart gives an interesting account of 

 two of these birds which he killed and examined anatomically. 

 A portion of his observations are to the following effect. The 

 communication is dated from Ards House, December 4, 1828 : 

 " I shot a pair of these birds a few days ago, in fine plu- 

 mage. H< * * A few hours after they were dead, I took a 

 strong pair of scissors and a knife, using them as levers to 

 force open their bills, and found the muscles had so firmly 

 contracted, that, to effect my purpose, I had to use a wedge; 

 a forcible proof it will be allowed of their strength. Their 

 bills alone, however, are formed as a pair of nut-crackers, as 

 the muscles of the neck, unlike those of the woodpeckers, 

 are not strong*." Dubourdieu, in his ' Survey of the County 

 of Antrim,' observes, that "the grosbeak (Z,o<riG), like a green- 

 linnet, but larger, often resorts to the wooded farms in its 

 neighbourhood [Lough Neagh] in winter." The crossbill is 

 most probably here alluded to, and not the species under con- 

 sideration. That the latter cannot be so, at least correctly, 

 seems to me sufficiently evident from the circumstance that 

 Mr. Templeton knew and corresponded with Dubourdieu, 

 and in his catalogue of our native birds, he makes no mention 

 whatever of the grosbeak. The Phoenix Park, Dublin, where 

 there are literally woods of venerable hawthorns, has, above 

 all places in Ireland, produced examples of this bird. Notes 

 of its occurrence there in the following years are before me — 

 in 1828-29, when the first individual (as I learn from Dr. J. 

 D. Marshall) was obtained on the 6th of November, and 

 about a dozen more altogether at various dates through the 

 winter: in 1830?, when numbers were killed and supplied to 

 my informant, a bird-preserver in the metropolis, who pur- 

 chased them for a shilling each: in 1831, when the Rev. T. 

 Knox records three individuals from this locality f: in 1832- 

 33 I have been made aware of several having been killed; 

 T. W. Warren, Esq., alone received four examples : and 

 lastly, in January 1837- The Phoenix Park — the natural 

 beauty of whose scenery is admirably depicted by Lady Mor- 

 gan in her ' O'Briens and O'Flahertys ' as a prelude to its 

 being the scene of " The Review " — is very well adapted to 

 be the permanent residence of the grosbeak ; and although 



* Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. v. p. o82. 

 t Ibid., p. 734. 



