1878] Rare Birds in the Dublin Museum. 269 



whilst for rare visitants the treasures are hardly inferior in value to 

 those of Trinity College. Here is the American Goshawk, obtained by 

 Mr. Massey-Dawson, at Ballinacourte, County Tipperary ; the Scops 

 Owl, from the Montgomery collection, captured at Wexford ; and 

 amongst the warblers is Hypolais icterina, from Dunsinea, County 

 Dublin. . . . I regret to say that the Blue Rock Thrush's antecedents 

 are not satisfactory, and that both it and the Swift Tern (S. bergii), 

 whose introduction into the Irish list* was a practical joke, must be 

 removed from the British list of stragglers ; but respecting these 

 birds, full details will shortly be given by a more competent pen than 

 mine. . . . Amongst the Buntings is that rare visitant the Ortolan; 

 and then attention is arrested by the Luggala-killed specimen of the 

 American Kingfisher (Ceryle alcyon), and that of the American Purple 

 Martin obtained at Kingstown. There is ... a specimen of the 

 American Bittern, which has, however, been obtained elsewhere in the 

 British Islands ; a fine series of Plovers in different stages of plumage ; 

 and an Avocet, a very rare bird in Ireland, mounted in the best style of 

 which even the talented taxidermist of the society, Mr. R. Pride, is 

 capable (indeed it would be difficult to find better mounting than his 

 and that of Mr. Williams of Dame- street) ; and this excellence is 

 nowhere better displayed than amongst the waders. Amongst the 

 sea-birds, for which the society is largely indebted to Mr. R. Warren 

 of Ballina, there is a good series of Gulls and Terns, comprising many 

 of the Roseate Tern, the Warren Whiskered Tern, and amongst the 

 most recent additions, a beautiful specimen in summer plumage of the 

 White-winged Black Tern, presented by Mr. R. J. Ussher of Cappoquin, 

 being, with the exception of a straggler to America, the most western 

 occurrence on record. Then there is the Noddy (Anous stolidus), 

 obtained off the Wexford coast. ... As curiosities, an albino Puffin 

 and two nearly white Curlews should be mentioned. 



Much praise is also bestowed on the collections of Mam- 

 malia, of Irish fossils, and of some of the lower Invertebrate 

 families. Rone-More of Eagle Rock receives his tribute 

 of admiration : 



The Irish seals are well represented, and amongst them is a great 

 rarity ; indeed, I had never seen a similar example a black variety of 

 Phoca vitulina ; whilst of the Great Grey Seal (Halichserus grypus), 

 there is a magnificent adult male, shot by Mr. A. G. More off the coast 

 of Connemara. This grand beast measured eight feet in length, and 

 weighed three-and-a-half hundred-weight. 



* Under the name of RuppelPs Tern (Sterna velox), this species is recorded 

 in Thompson (vol. iii.), and in Watters (p. 240), as having been shot near Dublin 

 in 1846. In Mr. More's " List of Irish Birds " (1885) it is excluded. 



