OCCASIONAL NOTES. 17 



of record, because the above is only the second instance of the occurrence 

 of this species in our own immediate neighbourhood which has come to my 

 knowledge, though the Ruff bred in the Cambridgeshire Fens, at not more 

 than fifteen miles distance from Lilford, well within my recellection. I 

 subjoin the dates of arrival of some autumnal migrants about Lilford, 

 as observed by myself and Mr. G. Hunt above mentioned ;— Redwing, 

 Turdus iliacus, September 30th ; Jack Snipe, Gallinago gallinula, October 

 10th (very unusually late) ; Grey Crow, Corvus comix, October 11th ; Wild 

 Goose, Anser sp. ?, October 15th; Teal, Anas crecca, October 19th (very 

 late); Widgeon, Mareca penelope, October 28th; Fieldfare, Turdus pilaris, 

 October 29th ; Golden Plover, Charadrius pluvialis, October 29th ; Wood- 

 cock, Scolopax rusticula, October 31st (about a week later than usual). We 

 had but very few Snipes about our meadows on the Nen till the end of 

 October, about which time a considerable flight dropped in, and upwards of 

 one hundred, amongst which were a large proportion of " Jacks," were 

 bagged by Mr. Hunt and the Lilford gamekeepers between November 1 st 

 and 10th. The annual arrival of travelling Wood Pigeons, Columba 

 palumbus, took place about the end of October. Mr. Hunt, writing to me 

 from Wadenhoe House, Oundle, November 1st, says: — "The Wood 

 Pigeons have come ; they are in flocks of hundreds and hundreds up round 

 the woods, and will soon clear up all the acorns." A large number of these 

 birds breed in our woods and plantations, but we always have an immi- 

 gration of strangers in the autumn, their numhers apparently depending on 

 the abundance or scarcity of acorns and beechmast, both of which were 

 very plentiful in Northamptonshire last autumn.— Lilfoed. 



Ornithological Notes from Dublin. — We were visited by a terrible 

 sou'-wester on Sunday, November 20th, which extended over the whole of 

 Ireland, and during the week following specimens of Leach's Petrel were 

 observed at the undermentioned places:— At McGilligan's Strand, Lough 

 Foyle, seashore, one; Malahide, Co. Dublin, seashore, one: Clontarf, 

 Dublin Bay, seashore, six; Edenderry, King's County, inland bog, one; 

 Turbotstown, Co. Westmeath, inland lake, two ; Ballinasloe, Co. Galway, 

 thirty miles inland, one. At Turbotstown a pair were seen following a boat 

 on the lake ; a gentleman, who watched them, mistook them for little 

 hawks. They flew along the margin of the lake for several hours against 

 the wind to the upper part, then settling, drifted back again, keeping head 

 to wind all the time. The stomachs on dissection contained the usual oily 

 matter, and a number of round semi-transparent objects resembling the 

 seeds of aquatic plants. The rusty, faded looking plumage of both, with 

 the exception of the wings, was in an advanced state of moult, some of the 

 tail-feathers being only half-developed, the new dark grey feathers making 

 their appearance about the head and neck. Of those taken at Lough Foyle 



D 



