1894] Rara Avis. 395 



A passing controversy, during the same autumn, was 

 raised by a little bird which happened to pay a visit to the 

 wild shores of Achill. In the neighbourhood of Keem 

 Bay, Mr. Sheridan saw, consorting with the usual linnets, 

 stonechats, &c., a beautiful little yellow finch, which he 

 shot, and immediately recognized as identical in species 

 with an American Goldfinch previously shot by him in 

 Canada. Mr. Sheridan sent the bird in the flesh to Mr. 

 More, and with it the American stuffed specimen. The 

 circumstances and locality of the little foreigner's appear- 

 ance certainly lent themselves very temptingly to the 

 suggestion that one more winged voyager across the 

 Atlantic had reached the Irish shore : and Mr. Sheridan 

 held firmly to this conviction. Mr. More, however, judg- 

 ing partly from the state of some of the feathers, felt 

 that this view was scarcely tenable, and inquiries in 

 several directions confirmed him in the opinion that the 

 bird (being of a species which dealers frequently import] 

 had more probably escaped from a passing ship. Some of 

 his latest letters to Mr. Sheridan relate to this subject. 



(Sept. 2 1 st y 1894.} Your two little birds are quite safe, and I will 

 ask Mr. Williams to send them back to you as soon as the skin is dry. 

 It is very curious to find a small American Finch at large on the shore 

 of Achill. But then, you must agree that this is just the place where 

 an escaped bird would land, whether liberated on purpose or escaping 

 by accident from its cage. It is not the case of a Plover, or Sandpiper, 

 birds of powerful flight, which have frequently crossed the Atlantic, but a 

 poor little feeble Finch, which, as far as I know, has never crossed from 

 America to Europe, nor likely to do so spontaneously. Your birds are, 

 I believe, both the American Goldfinch (Astragalinus tristis), and I 

 wish I could persuade you to take a moderate view about the possibility 

 of that one which you shot in Achill being an escape. 



(Sept. 24th, 1894.} As Mr. Harting has written to me about your 

 American Goldfinch, I have thought it best to send both your speci- 

 mens, viz., that shot in Achill, and that which you brought from North 

 America, to him, so that he may judge for himself; and I have asked 

 him to return both direct to you. And I write you just this line that 

 you may know where the birds are. I suppose you are on the look-out 

 for autumn visitors. A Glaucous Gull has been obtained already. 



His correspondent, though not satisfied about the Gold- 

 finch, bears willing testimony to the truth- seeking spirit in 



