Short Notes on Natural History. 5 7 1 



the sub-species; and Mr. J. G. Millais, of the Seaforth Highlanders, 

 now quartered in Dublin, most kindly took the trouble to have sent from 

 Dublin a series of Crossbills obtained by himself in Scotland, which 

 enabled me, by comparison, to make quite sure of the name, though of 

 course the opinion of Professor Newton would of itself have been quite 

 sufficient. This, the first authenticated Irish specimen of the Parrot 

 Crossbill, was shot, as I am informed, on January 12th. The past 

 winter has been remarkable for the number of Crossbills which have 

 been observed in various parts of Ireland. 



ATHANAS NITESCENS IN IRELAND.* 

 [ZOOLOGIST, June, 1889.] 



I do not think that this pretty little crustacean, so like a miniature 

 lobster, has yet been recorded as Irish. In 1869, when collecting for 

 the Royal Dublin Society in the West of Ireland, I captured this rare 

 species in a rock-pool, in the small island of Magdara, which is noted 

 also for a very interesting old chapel ruin. It lies a short distance to 

 the south of Roundstone, Connemara. 



THE SO-CALLED "MARTINICO GALLINULE" IN 

 IRELAND. 



[ZOOLOGIST, January, 1890.] 



In preparing a new edition of my ' List of Irish Birds,' I have done 

 my best to clear up the doubts which have long attached to a bird 

 picked up dead near Brandon Mountain, in Kerry. It will be remem- 

 bered that, in 1846, Thompson, from a description sent to him by Mr. 

 Richard Chute, announced this bird as Porphyrio hyacinthinus of 

 Temminck (Ann. Nat. Hist., vol. xviii., p. 311). Mr. W. Andrews 

 subsequently saw this specimen at Chute Hall, where it still remains, 

 and considered it to be the Martinico Gallinule (lonornis martinica), 

 an identification which Thompson accepted as correct, and under this 

 name mentions this bird in his 'Natural History of Ireland' (Birds, 

 vol. ii., p. 331, footnote). Having asked the assistance of Mr. J. C. 

 Neligan, he and Lord Ventry have very kindly interested themselves in 

 the matter, with the result that, a few weeks ago, Lord Ventry brought 

 up to Dublin a bird of his own, which is labelled as having been 

 obtained " in a cabbage -garden near Odorney, on the River Brick, 



* As has been pointed out (p. 336), there is an earlier record in Thompson's 

 " Natural History of Ireland," vol. iv., p. 391 ; but the rarity of the species in 

 Ireland is sufficiently shown by the fact that Thompson had only met with one 

 specimen. 



