324 Alexander Goodman More. [i884 



mendedfor "Cyb.Hib." So now make your arrangements with Vowell, 

 for three weeks I hope of camping, to do Lough Ree properly at two 

 intervals if you like : one end of June, one beginning of August. Pota- 

 mogetons, Charas, aquatics of all sorts ; and try if you can find another 



locality for Inula salicina. Yours, 



A. G. M. 



DEAR BARRINGTON, The gout is a thing that lasts many days ; so 

 here I am not able to go in to-day, probably not to-morrow before end 

 of week, I hope. I have pencilled some notes for you on the enclosed, 



just for you to take your choice of. The keeper must be wrong 



about the Manx Shearwater not going on to the land (rock) at all, This 



remark only makes him seem unobservant The Chough leg 



was all right, I believe. Would it not be better to say that birds striking 

 are all or mostly killed, and not make exceptions, as it were, in favour 

 of Woodcock ? But were all the hundreds of Blackbirds all killed ? 



At I should have expected the Puffins to go off to fish in the 



day and return at night to roost at their breeding ledges. I think 

 I have read of their starting out at earliest break of day from their 

 breeding places. How, then, can they return in the morning ? 

 unless he means seen again passing. This is worth inquiry. I do not 

 think Dunlins can breed at Innishtrahull. This is worth asking about. 

 Can there be any suitable ground there ? . . . . The Ducks going 

 N.E. past Aran in winter are only on a short flight from the sea, or from 



Kerry to Connemara. This is not migration, I think Have 



you stated or could you next time give the size, area in acres, or length 

 and breadth of the different islands on which the lighthouses stand ? 

 The size must much influence the landing and stay of birds. Yours, 



A. G. M. 



But what he was now busiest about was his List of Irish 

 Birds. Three letters may be quoted relating to the pre- 

 paration of what is probably his best-known work : 



February 2oth, 1885. 



MY DEAR NEWTON, I am drawing up a list of Irish birds for our 

 Museum, and I wish to ask you to be kind enough to advise me what 

 to do about the Grey Shrike. Our two specimens have only one wing- 

 bar, and I suppose Seebohm would call them L. major. Now, had I 

 better enter them as Excubitor with this remark, or should I adopt the 

 name " major," in which case I have no certainty that the two forms 

 both occur in Ireland, although I could hardly turn out the old Excu- 

 bitor. Can you help me over the difficulty ? 



A lady friend in Westmeath, Mrs. Battersby, thinks she has made a 

 discovery about the Sedge-Warbler, having taken a nest among reeds 

 (in Meath I think it was) exactly like that figured in Yarrell as the 



