“4498 THE ZooLocist—JUNE, 1875. 
Vieillot—in this neighbourhood, but the following notes may be interesting. 
1 have a bird, one of a nest of three, which a gentleman in this neighbour- 
hood obtained a few years ago from the forest. The other two were 
accidentally killed several months before the one I possess,—and this is not 
fully adult,—but they were much blacker. The colour of the one I have isa 
dull blackish brown, with a slight purple tinge when viewed closely, and with 
regard to markings it has very little indications of any; the bars across the 
tail are slightly visible, and so are a few slightly paler markings upon some 
parts of the plumage, but at a little distance the bird appears of an uniform 
dark brown. The third quill-feather of the wing is longest, and the bird 
itself is of a slender build, all seeming to point to its being the variety in 
question, and for some time I considered it none other, but having read 
an article upon the quill-feathers of the hen harrier—in which they 
appear sometimes to differ in length, sewwal though these differences are— 
I cannot place such implicit confidence upon my former conclusions.— 
G. B. Corbin. 
Pied Flycatcher near Bolton.—Last Monday as I was travelling from 
Bowdon to Bolton Road, I saw no less than six pairs of pied flycatchers. 
A fine male was shot just as it was entering a hole in a decayed oak.— 
E. Butterfield. 
Pied Flycatcher in County Mayo.—Your ornithological readers will, I 
have no doubt, feel interested in hearing that a fine specimen of the pied 
flycatcher has visited this extreme western district, and I believe is the 
first and only one recorded as being captured in Ireland. Thompson, in 
his ‘Birds of Ireland,’ does not mention its occurrence, and Professor 
Newton, in his new edition of ‘Yarrell’s British Birds,’ speaks of it 
breeding in a few places in North Wales, which has hitherto appeared to 
be the extreme limit of its western migration. For several days previous 
to the 18th inst. we bad a continuance of easterly wind, with very dry 
warm weather: on the evening of that day I was slowly walking through 
the lawn here, looking out for some of our summer visitors, when my 
attention was attracted by a small bird catching insects in true flycatcher 
style; this appeared very strange to me, as it was a month or six weeks too 
eurly for the appearance of the Muscicapa grisola. I, however, watched it 
very attentively for some time, when it appeared to me that its head looked 
smaller and its plumage closer than those of the spotted flycatcher, and 
occasionally I fancied that I saw some white markings on the wings, but of 
~ this I was not quite certain, as the evening light was just failing, and I 
had to return to the house not at all satisfied as to its identity. However, 
next morning I returned to my post of observation, and in a short time 
saw the little fellow hard at work taking insects as usual, but now having 
better light, and the aid of a field glass, I very soon made out the white 
wing-markings very distinctly; these, together with the colour and whole 
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