Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 419 



to my barrel. * * * Its cry resembled that of the water-ouzel. It 

 was quite a vara avis in this country, no one knowing anything of 

 it." A description of the bird follows, proving it to have been the 

 Pastor roseus. The specimen was given to a gentleman mentioned, 

 with the intention that it should be preserved for the " Dublin Mu- 

 seum." It is possible that the same example of the bird may be al- 

 luded to, in both of the foregoing letters. In the 'Zoological Journal,' 

 No. 4, p. 489, Mr. Vigors states that a rose-coloured pastor, shot 

 near Wexford in 1820, is in his collection. One obtained in the year 

 1830 has already been noticed. I have been informed by Dr. Har- 

 vey of Cork, that a bird of this species " was captured at Carrigataha, 

 adjoining Ballibrado, in the county of Tipperary, in June 1833, by 

 Mr. Fennell, who baited a fish-hook with a cherry, which the bird 

 swallowed, and was thus taken." A pastor which I saw in the pos- 

 session of Mr. W. S. Wall, bird-preserver, Dublin, was noticed in a 

 letter from the Rev. Thomas Knox as " shot in a garden near Dublin 

 on the 20th of July 1833. On dissection, the bird proved to be a 

 female ; the eggs were small and not distinct ; gizzard muscular ; the 

 skins of cherries visible, by which fruit the inside of the gizzard and 

 mouth were stained bright pink." When in Dublin on the 26th of 

 June 1834, I saw in the bird-preserver's just mentioned an example 

 previous to its being skinned of an adult male P. roseus. It was 

 taken in a cherry-net in the garden of Richard Long, Esq., Longfield, 

 Cashel, on the 7th of that month, and had been kept alive for a fort- 

 night. In July 1836, Lieut. Davis, R.N., of Donaghadee, sent to 

 the Belfast Museum an individual of this species, which was captured 

 early in the month, in a garden near that town. It had been kept alive 

 for a few days : on dissection it proved to be a male, and was in adult 

 plumage. About the middle of the same month a second example, 

 which came under my examination, was shot at Hillsborough, in the 

 same county. On the r2th of August that year, a third was made 

 known to me as obtained in Ireland : this was shot near Kenmare, 

 in the county of Kerry* ; and sent by Dr. Taylor, the distinguished 

 botanist, resident in that neighbourhood, to Mr. R. Ball of Dublin. 

 In the summer of the following year (1837), as I learn from Mr. T. 

 W. Warren of Dublin, a pastor, which he saw in a fresh state, was 

 shot from among a flock of starlings in one of the islands of Arran at 

 the entrance of Galway Bay ; it was preserved for Mr. Thompson of 

 Clonskea Castle, the proprietor of the islands. In June 1838, as re- 

 ported to me, one of these birds was sent from Ashbourne, about ten 

 miles from Dublin, to Mr. W. S. Wall, to be preserved. The sto- 

 mach was found on dissection to be filled with cherries. Dr. Farran 

 of Feltrim,in the vicinity of the metropolis, likewise informed me, that 

 on the 7th or 8th of July 1838, a P. roseus was shot when feeding on 

 the same fruit at Newbarron, near Fieldstown, a few miles from Dub- 



* In a letter from Mr. William Andrews of Dublin, dated Nov. 14, 1841, 

 it was meiuioncd, that " three specimens of the rose-coloured pastor have 

 been shot near Tralee, one in the garden of Colonel Crosbie." 



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