The Zoologist — Octohkk, 1868. 1405 



the prior hours of the clay spent upon some grouse-mountain, snipe- 

 bog or hunting country — aye, mayhap it is pleasanter than "tooling" 

 my three quarter-breds, though my heart is in each buckle of their 

 harness, each step they take. So much for being a lover of Nature. 

 How dear is the scene, after months spent on the changing sea! so 

 have I felt — so has many another. The traveller who for years has 

 been from home, on his return to his native land and village will in- 

 wardly remark, "The old rooks are about here still, just the same as 

 when I was a boy." Is there not a close tie between the rook and 

 man ? May generations hence say with love, "And the dear old rook 

 is here still." 



Mealy Redpole. — Mr. Doubleday has, with extreme kindness, pre- 

 sented me with a beautiful case of mealy redpoles, an adult male, a 

 young male, and two females. This bird is very distinct, both in size 

 and markings, from the lesser redpole. I can now say, without hesi- 

 tation, that I have never met with this bird in Ireland ; in fact, till the 

 kind present reached me, I was totally ignorant of the mealy redpole. 

 The bird forwarded to me by Mr. Gardiner, taxidermist, of High 

 Holborn (Zool. S. S. 225), was not the mealy redpole; hence my 

 doubts on the species being distinct. 



Snow Bunting associating with Larks. — March 20. As they flew past 

 I noticed the white bird, and, taking it for a variety of the sky lark, I 

 followed it up and shot it : it was feeding quite amicably with the 

 larks. Common as the snow bunting is in this county, I never met it 

 inland or with larks before. 



Wlieatear : early arrival in 1867. — March 21. Ballybrack beach. 



Magpie : gregariousness. — Magpies have flocked in unusually large 

 numbers this winter about Ballybrack. There has been in existence 

 since last December a flock containing from eighteen to twenty of 

 these birds. They are invariably seen together, though perhaps 

 scattered over an extent of some fields, rarely more than one field, but 

 more often in immediate company. They fly in a straggling flock 

 when disturbed, usually getting up one after another, till the beholder 

 invariably ejaculates, " What a devil of a lot of magpies !" Some days 

 the number rises to twenty-three ; once I counted twenty-six. They 

 roost together in a pine wood, and appear dreadfully stupid before 

 going to sleep. A person at this time could kill any number of them 

 by remaining in the dark wood. A friend returning with me from 

 snipe shooting, one evening in January, killed six to get their tail- 

 feathers to make a fan, and would, I believe, have bagged the whole 



