94 The Zoologist — February, 1866. 



* 

 backed up by sirailar examples. Last winter I killed (with a good 

 object) some dozens of these birds, and only one had a summer 

 feather in the back or neck, though many were adults, and that bird 

 had ten speckled feathers in the left scapular. The ovaries had been 

 well taxed. This bird is not plentiful this year, the redthroated diver 

 having taken its place in numbers, though it is generally more 

 abundant than Colymbus seplentrionidis. On the 12th of October 

 I hunted four of these birds, three adults moulting, but with very few . 

 white feathers in the throat, which was black, as in summer, with the 

 exception of the collars. Though I got in range several times, the 

 rain damped my ammunition, for it was spitting wet, and a miss or a 

 hang-fire "sold" me. So near was I to one I could count his 

 speckles, if he had kept up long enough, but I was drawing a damp 

 charge. The fourth was immature. Fellow naturalists, if your gun is 

 damp, draw your shot and the powder-wad, and drop a burning 

 vesuvian down the barrel ; it will instantly burn your powder, and 

 save valuable time. 



Purple Sandpiper. — Very abundant in November. 



Snow Bunting. — Saw two, on the 27lh of November, on the West 

 Pier, Kingstown. Since then numbers appeared on the sea-rocks, 

 Dalkey. 



Greenshank. — Saw great numbers on the North Strand, Dublin Bay. 

 A boorish fellow shot one before me, and would not part with it, pre- 

 ferring to eat it than oblige me or take money for it. They are wary, 

 and very hard to shoot. My best grounds are closed against me, 

 through the lunatics calling themselves " Fenians :" the Pigeon House, 

 Fort Strand, is closed against intrusion. 



Shorteared Owl. — By no means scarce in October. Out of three 

 shot on Dalkey Island I got one, a young female. Two, a male and 

 young female, I also got, shot more inland. They are never common 

 in this county. 



H. Blake-Knox. 

 Ulverton Place, Dalkey, December, 1866. 



Destruction of Birds by Telegraph-wires. — I have observed several instances of the 

 desiruclion of birds by telegraph-wires within the last two or three years. A specimen 

 of ihe kingfisher was picked up a short time since by a man on the railway line at 

 Lakenham. My friend Mr. Arthur Taylor picked up specimens of the cuckoo and 

 wryneck, laying both together on the embankment of the railway near Somerleyton 



