808 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
bird. The legs were not noticed by my friend, and your having laid stress 
on them and not on the tail-feathers seems to me to have weakened the 
identification. There is also an unfortunate repetition at the end of the 
notice, by which the two specimens in the Dublin Museum are multiplied 
into four. Will you kindly insert this necessary correction ?—HENRY 
CuicHEstErR Hart (71, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin). 
[We regret that, in endeavouring to elucidate our correspondent’s 
meaning, we have placed a wrong construction on his words. We took it 
for granted that by “appendage to the tail” he could only mean an apparent 
appendage caused by the bird carrying its legs straight out beyond the tail 
after the fashion of Cranes, Herons, Storks, and other long-legged birds. 
The well-known “plumes” to which he now says he intended to refer are 
in no sense of the word ‘an appendage to the tail”; nor are they, as he 
supposes, ‘‘tail-coverts.” They are simply the elongated tertials with 
unconnected webs, reaching beyond the extremities of the primaries. We 
trust under the circumstances our correspondent will pardon the 
unintentional perversion of his meaning, With regard to the “repetition” 
at the end of the notice to which our correspondent refers, we can only say 
that we printed his own words.—Eb. ] 
SupposeD OccuRRENCE OF THE VIRGINIAN HorneD OwL IN IRELAND. 
—Having recently examined five specimens of the Virginian Horned Owl 
in different museums, I am convinced that Dr. Burkitt's bird (described by 
me, p. 262) is of that species, and is not an Eagle Owl. Besides its smaller 
size and general dissimilarity of appearance, it has not the long distinct 
black spots characteristic of the Eagle Owl, while its more intricate 
markings and the rounded spots of white on many of its feathers may be 
seen on specimens of the Bubo Virginianus, a species which, however, 
seems to vary much in its markings. If I have correctly determined this 
specimen, it is, I believe, the only instance on record of the occurrence of 
the Virginian Horned Owl in the British Islands, if not in Europe; and 
Dr. Burkitt (who obtained the only specimen of the Gold-vented Thrush 
and of the Hawk Owl in these islands, as well as a Great Auk) will have 
preserved to us more than one unique specimen of a straggler to our shores. 
With the Great Belted Kingfisher and the Yellow-billed American Cuckoo 
it has reached this Ultima Thule from beyond the Atlantic. Dr. Burkitt's 
notice of it, made at the time, states that it was shot at Belle Lake 
(Co. Waterford) on January 27th, 1851.—Ricuarp J. Ussaer (Cappagh, 
Cappoquin). 
Lesser Snow Goose ry IreLAnp.—In ‘ The Zoologist’ for 1878 (pp. 
419, 453) I gave some account of the capture in the Co. Mayo of the Lesser 
Snow Goose, Anser albatus, Cassin. It may be recollected that out of a flock 
of seven which visited some marshy ground at Termoncarra, in the Barony 
