7436 Birds. 



with great flexibility in a curious manner, and keeping it in consfanl motion. She is 

 very fond of the fire, and stands before it on one leg for hours together. She has on 

 two or three occasions exhibited symptoms of impatience at confinement, by flying 

 against the window : on the last occasion she flew against the ceiling of the room with 

 some violence, and came down much hurt, so that the feathers of one of her wings 

 have been cut. Mr. Upham is getting a place made to collect and store worms ; 

 her consumption of them is almost incredulous, for she consumes in twelve hours nearly 

 double her own weight. Three sorts of wormsshe takes, the dew worm, and two other 

 small red sorts, the names of which are unknown to me ; the brandling, the lobb, the 

 gilt-tail, or indeed any worm from a dung-heap, she will not touch. She is also very 

 fond of snails' eggs, very small young snails, woodlice, or small Planorbis, and several 

 other fresh-water shells, eating shell and all ; she also picks up gravel like other birds. 

 I watched the bird for more than an hour, and saw her eat more than twenty worms. 

 The pie-dish is a blue one, and, as it was thought to be not quite deep enough for 

 her, a larger one was searched for ; but Starcross could not furnish a larger blue dish, 

 so a yellow one was bought, but she would not go near it ; it was even banked up 

 with turf, but it would not do, so the old blue pie-dish was brought back to her again. 

 Mr. Upham is keeping a diary, and notes down the habits and peculiarities he observes 

 in his pet snipe. He much fears she will not survive the ensuing summer. I was so 

 much interested that I hope to pay the snipe another visit veiy soon.— W. B. Scott; 

 Chudleiyh, Devon, February 22, 1861. 



On the Occurrence of the Spoonbill in the County of Cork. — In presenting to the 

 Dub'in Natural History Society some fine specimens of Platalea leucorodia, or wliite 

 spoonbill, I am aware thai I can add nothing new to the accounts already published 

 in the several works on Ornithology ; it may, however, be of interest to enter into 

 some details respecting the particular birds in question. For two of the specimens I 

 am indebted to my relative Mr. Richard Quin, of Firgrove, Innishannon, County 

 Cork. The village of Innishannon stands on the left bank of " the pleasant Bandon, 

 crowned with many a wood," which rises from the river to a considerable elevation, 

 facing the rocky hill which, on the opposite side, rises nearly perpendicularly, and 

 clothed with wood. Along both sides of the Bandon there are alluvial flats, which above 

 Innishannon form rich pasturage for cattle in the bends of the river, at one of which, 

 opposite Firgrove, Mr. Quin, in 1846, shot the fine specimen of the Canada goose {Anser 

 canadensis) which is in the Museum of the Society. Below Innishannon, either from 

 want of improvement or from being at a lower elevation, they extend to a consider- 

 able length and breadth nearly to Kinsale, where the river enters the sea. At very 

 high tides and floods these flats are partially submerged. About three miles down the 

 river from Innishannon lies Sliippool Marsh, adjoinin? Shippool Castle, a very old seat 

 of the Herrick family. Eariy in December, 1800, while looking for snipe on the 

 Marsh, Mr. James Herrick fell in with a flock of four spoonbills, of which he shot one. 

 Of this I had immediate notice from Mr. Quin, having previously urged him to be 

 on the look-out for rare birds, the river near Kinsale being celebrated for the number 

 of water-fowl and waders that frequent it. I wrote to him, to endeavour to secure it, 

 if it was really a spoonbill, and not the shoveller duck {Anas clypeata), which is often 

 so called. The result was that Mr. Herrick most kindly presented it at once. For 

 some days after two were seen, and Mr. Quin was indefatigable in trying to secure 

 them for me, but owing to their wildness it was very difficult to approach them. He 

 succeeded, however, in shooting one (the specimen which I have had set up with ex- 



