A List of Irish Birds. 597 



*Rallus aquations (Linn.) Water Rail. 



Resident in small numbers throughout Ireland. Becomes more 

 numerous in winter, and is often taken at the lighthouses when 

 migrating in autumn. 



*Gallinula ehloropns (Linn.) Moor-Hen. Water-Hen. 



Resident and common. A specimen of the hairy variety was 

 obtained at Athlone in November, 1883. (y. H. Gurney, in 

 Norfolk and Norwich. Nat. Hist. Trans, iii. p. 581.) 



[Obs. Lord Ventry has very kindly allowed me to examine a 

 specimen of the green-backed Porphyrio (P. smaragnotus), 

 in his possession, and which is labelled as having been ob- 

 tained " in a cabbage garden near Odorney, on the river Brick, 

 near Ballyheigue Bay, loth October, 1873," and Lord Ventry 

 further informs me that he believes it is of the same species as 

 the bird at Chute Hall, which has so long passed as the 

 "Martinico Gallinule." Mr. J. H. Gurney also tells me that 

 there is an Irish specimen of another Porphyrio (P. c&ruleus) 

 in the collection of Mr. John Marshall, of Taunton, with 

 neither date nor locality. But as neither of these Porphyries 

 has yet been admitted to rank fully as a British bird, I believe 

 it best to exclude them for the present.] 



*Fulica atra (Linn.) Coot. 



Resident and frequent on lakes and large rushy pools. Migrates 

 to the sea in hard weather. 



ORDER ALECTORIDES. 

 GRUID^E. 



Grus communis (Bechst.) Crane. 



Very rare and accidental visitor. Two fine specimens in the 

 Museum were presented by the Dublin Natural History Society, 

 having been obtained in Kerry or Cork, in November, 1851, 

 when a small flock of six or eight birds visited both counties. 

 {Dublin Nat. Hist. Soc., Proc. i., p. 71). Thompson mentions 

 one obtained in Galway and another in Kerry. In Seebohm's 

 "British Birds" a male is recorded as shot in the co. Down, 

 May, 1882, and Mr. R. J. Ussher records two in Mayo, one of 

 which was killed, January ist, 1884 (Zoologist, 1884, p. 72), 

 and was by him very kindly presented to the Museum. Smith 

 mentions that Cranes were seen in Waterford and Cork during 

 the great frost of 1739. The name "Crane" is, by country 

 people, commonly misapplied to the Heron.f 



t A recent specimen shot at Lough Swilly, June 23rd, 1896, is recorded in 

 the Irish Naturalist, 1896, p. 214. 



