18 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



and Malahide, there is no information as to whether they were alone 

 or formed part of a small party. Six were seen at Clontarf estuary, Dublin 

 Bay. The Great Northern Railway cuts across the mud-flats, forming a 

 sheltered expanse about a quarter of a mile long and a few hundred yards 

 wide. Up and down and rouud this place the Petrels kept flying in a 

 zigzag course, following each other in single file, and reaching the margin 

 of the tide for food. Outside an archway in the embankment, where the 

 water rushes out at the fall of the tide, seemed to be a favourite place for 

 them, and here, among the small waves, the little Petrels (looking like large 

 black Swallows), hovered head to wind, and kept tipping the water with 

 their tiny black feet. They were, however, well able to take care of them- 

 selves, keeping just out of gunshot, and it was with difficulty that one 

 specimen (in an advanced state of moult) was obtained. The Petrel from 

 Ballinasloe was picked up dead in a field about three miles from that town, 

 and thirty miles from the west coast. As the telegraph wires run through 

 the field, it may have been blown against them during the gale. The bird 

 from Edenderry, King's County, far inland, was put up by a Snipe-shooter 

 at the edge of a bog. On November 22nd, after the gale, I saw a specimen 

 of the Pomatorhine Skua at Sutton, Bay of Dublin ; it was chasing a 

 Black-headed Gull when seen first, aud was observed a few days later in 

 the same place. On December 2nd I had a good opportunity of observing 

 a flock of thirty or forty Snow Buntings ; they were very tame, allowing me 

 to walk up to them within five yards whilst feeding among the sand-hills. 

 They were in various stages of plumage, the beautiful white-winged adult 

 birds being mixed among the grey and dark brown plumaged birds of the 

 year. — A. Williams (7, Grantham Street, Dublin). 



The Peregrines of Salisbury Cathedral. — They are old friends 

 of mine, and I believe they have inhabited the spire of our Cathedral from 

 time immemorial. I have been here since 180 1 . The first time I think I 

 noticed them must have been in 1864, aud no doubt I ought to have done 

 so before had my eyes been open ; but never thinking of seeing such birds, 

 they may have ere that escaped my notice. It was, then, in 1864, 

 or possibly in 1865, that, being in the confines of the Close of Sarum, 

 I was attracted by the piteous cry of a Peewit far above my head, and, on 

 looking up, saw a Falcon aud Plover both climbing the air as fast as they 

 could go, the Peewit ringing in small circles, the Falcon making bold 

 sweeps and mounting so quickly that she seemed almost to be walking 

 upstairs ; as soon as she ascended high enough, down she came at the 

 Plover, but failed to strike it, the Plover descending in spiral curves like a 

 corkscrew. After seeing this I kept my eyes open, and soon found that a 

 pair of Peregrines roosted on the spire regularly every night. During that 

 year I was constantly down in our water-meadows shooting, and 1 picked 



