THE BIRDS OF THE MOY ESTUARY, 327 
two occasions | think I saw birds in the first year’s plumage. 
On the 4th December, 1851, I shot an immature bird at Bar- 
tragh. On the 9th December, 1854, [I saw either an Iceland 
or a Glaucous Gull, but I was too far off to be able to distinguish 
between the species, although I was able to see quite plainly the 
white wings which infallibly distinguish the northern gulls. On 
the 7th May, 1855, a bird in splendid adult plumage flew close by 
the window where I was sitting at the time, and I had a first-rate 
view of it. On the 26th January, 1862, I caught on a baited fish- 
hook a fine young bird that had frequented my ploughed fields for 
nearly a month, feeding on the worms turned up by the plough. It 
seemed so tame that | thought it a pity to shoot it, so I attempted 
to catch it alive for the Zoological Gardens, but it had completely 
swallowed the hook, and was too much injured by it to live. So, 
having killed it, I presented it to the Dublin Natural History 
Society’s collection. On the 22nd December of the same year 
I saw one, on the Enniscrone sands, so very dark in colour as to 
be evidently a young bird of the year. In 1866, on the 6th January, 
I shot another young bird in one of my fields, and on the 19th 
February | saw one at Enniscrone. In 1873, on the 26th January, 
as I was talking to a friend near Dooneen House, a young bird 
flew close past us and alighted on the high road about thirty yards 
off; after looking about for awhile it flew along the road, as if 
searching for food, for about two hundred yards, and then passed 
over the adjoining fields. The last time I had the pleasure of 
seeing one of these northern visitors was on the 28th January of 
the present year. It was resting amongst a flock of Common and 
Black-headed Gulls in one of my pasture fields. 
Eider Duck, Anas mollissima.—An extremely rare visitant. In 
March, 1870, I observed a pair of immature males near Bartragh, 
one of which remained about the river and estuary all through the 
summer and autumn. I shot it near Killanly on the 6th October 
following. Of this bird ] have already given a full account in ‘ The 
Zoologist’ for February of the present year (p. 50). In December, 
1870, my friend Captain Dover obtained a beautiful adult male 
near Bartragh. Both specimens are now in the Museum of the 
Royal Dublin Society. 
Black Scoter, Otdemia nigra.—Very rare. I have only once met 
with it, in the winter of 1857, when a pair frequented the channel 
near Bartragh for some weeks - 
