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



lin*. On the 13th of September 1838, 1 saw two specimens which had 

 been killed in different parts of the north of Ireland. One was shot 

 about the 1st of that month in the plantations about Bangor Castle, 

 county of Down, where another was seen in company with it ; they 

 had been observed for some time before : on dissection, no food was 

 found ; it proved to be a male, as the plumage denoted. The other 

 example was shot by Alex. Tyler, Esq., at the Umbra, Magilligan, 

 county of Londonderry, about the 10th of September. Having the 

 opportunity of examining this bird in a fresh state, I drew up the 

 following description, 



inch. Ihie. 



Entire length 8 9 



Bill from rictus to point 1 2^ 



Upper mandible, measured along the ridge from forehead \ rj n 



to point J 



Wing from carpus to end of longest quill 5 



Tail extending beyond closed wings ..' 1 



Tarsus 1 3 



Middle toe and nail 1 3 



Hind toe and tail, measured in a straight line 9 



Tibia feathered to the tarsal joint. Colours, those of the adult male 

 as described by authors (as are likewise those of the one above no- 

 ticed from Bangor Castle), and as such contradistinguished from the 

 plumage assumed until the second year as described by Temminck 

 (Man., part 3, p. 76). On dissection it proved a male; it was in 

 excellent condition. Its stomach, with the exception of a large co- 

 leopterous insect, was entirely filled with the seeds of gooseberries. 



In April 1838, 1 learned from Mr. H. H. Dombrain of Dublin, that 

 he had received a rose-coloured pastor which had been captured 

 some years before at Woodhill, Ardara, in the county of Donegal, 

 the seat of Major Nesbitt : it was taken alive in the green -house in 

 an exhausted state, and died a few hours afterwards. 



On a comparison of Irish examples with specimens obtained in 

 India (in the same locality with the starling alread)'^ mentioned), the 

 species proved to be the same. 



The Caov Gil -^y Fregilus Graculus, Selby, is noticed in 

 Harris's 'Down' (1744), and Smith's 'Cork' (1749). as one 

 of the birds of those counties, and in the latter is said to be 

 " very common, frequenting rocks, old castles and ruins upon 

 the sea-coast." The species is more generally diffused around 

 the rock-bound shores of Ireland than British authors would 

 lead us to believe it is on those of Scotland and England, and 



* As it was not imtil some months afterwards that the notes were com- 

 municated, the same individual may possibly be alluded to by both my in- 

 formants; in which case there would be an error about the month. 



t Red-legged jackdaw of the north of Ireland; clifl-daw of Kerry. Smith 

 states in his ' History of Cork,' that the Irish name for this bird implies a 

 Spanish jackdaw. 



