The Zoologist — July, 1866. 29t 



Arctic Tern. — Shot a beautiful adult specimen on the 18th of April. 

 This is a very early date for a tern to be seen here. The arctic tern is 

 giving place more and more each year to the common tern. 



Purple Colour on the Breasts of Birds. — During the spring months 

 I frequently remark that the breasts of the kittiwake gull and the 

 common guillemot are beautifully suffused with purple. I do not think 

 this natural, but merely a slain from some floating matter, attained in 

 some warmer clime. The razorbill never has it, showing that they 

 could not have frequented the same place; the much later arrival of 

 the guillemot also denotes this. Can any reader of the ' Zoologist' 

 tell me where the guillemot, the puffin and the razorbill go to in 

 winter, as not one in a thousand of the first and last stay here, and 

 none of the puffin in winter. 



Ringed Guillemot. — On the 19th of April I shot an adult bird of this 

 species in summer plumage : they are very scarce on this coast. That 

 it is quite distinct from the common guillemot there can be very little 

 doubt, as it is ringed at all seasons and all ages. I would believe it only 

 a variety, when a razorbill without the white line, in summer plumage, 

 is shown to roe — a thing much more likely to happen than that the 

 guillemot should assume, and in so many and such permanent cases, 

 too, a white circle to the eye and the lachrymal line. 



Blackthroated Diver. — After a long chase for what I thought a red- 

 throated, I was agreeably surprised to find I had killed a blackthroated 

 diver, and a connecting-plumage link, too — far more valuable in my 

 eyes than an adult bird. I could see no resemblance whatever to the 

 northern diver in its plumage, as authors state, and if it had not the 

 black throat I should have certainly called it a redthroated diver. 

 However, on this subject again. 



Jack Snipe. — On the 2nd of May a jack snipe was shown me, shot 

 about an hour before. The plumage was the same as in winter. The 

 bird flew strongly, and I cannot but think that if left it would have 

 bred, or perhaps at the time the female was sitting. 



Blackheaded Bunting. — I met with this bird breeding at Bally- 

 brack this year. 



Starling. — Found a new breeding-place of this rare Irish summer 

 bird, at Loughlin's-town, about half-a-mile froui that previously men- 

 tioned. Twenty or thirty birds breed in some old timbr there. 



Blackcap Warhler (Sylvia atricapilla).— On the 17lh of May I saw 

 a male example of this very rare Irish bird at Ballybrack. Not only 

 did he erect his black crest, but he sang within a few yards of me. 



