NOTES AND QUERIES. 367 
nest with five eggs and the female hatching. Having frequently in the 
South of France seen and heard the Blackcap in full song, Miss Knox-Gore 
easily recognised its song and appearance beyond the possibility of mistake. 
The discovery of the Grasshopper Warbler visiting this district is also due 
to the observation of this lady, who met with the bird at Coolcronan, the 
demesne of Mr. E. H. Pery, situated on the banks of the River Moy, 
about four miles from Ballina. The Blackcap is a regular summer 
visitor, but very local in its habits, visiting but few districts in Ireland, 
chiefly in the eastern counties, and occasionally in the south. Thompson 
only mentions one instance of its occurrence in this province, and that was 
in winter, when an individual was shot near Tuam, Co. Galway, on the Ist 
November, 1842. Mr. A. G. More, in his List of Irish Birds, mentions it 
breeding in the counties Dublin, Wicklow, and Tipperary, and probably in 
Antrim also. It appears to be rather common about Fassaroe and the 
surrounding district in the Co. Wicklow a few miles beyond Bray.—RoBert 
Warren (Moyview Ballina, Co. Mayo.) 
Iceland Falcon in Skye.—I had lately the pleasure of examining an 
Iceland Falcon, shot in Skye last March by my friend Captain McDonald, 
of Waternish. I understand that Mr. Macleay inadvertently recorded it in 
an Inverness paper as the Greenland bird, of which Captain McDonald 
shot a fine specimen two years before (Zool. 1884, p. 383). The recent 
bird is, as unquestionably, islandicus.—H. A. MacpHerson (3, Kensington 
Gardens Square, W.) 
Greyhen in plumage of Blackcock.—A female Black Grouse, Tetrao 
tetriz, was shot here, on August 20th, with elongated tail-feathers turned 
outwards in the form of a lyre, measuring about seven inches in length, as 
in the male. Can any naturalist inform me whether it is common to 
find the female Black Grouse in this plumage ?—Jamus Saraunt (Nith 
Cottage, New Cumnock). 
[The assumption of the male plumage by hen birds is a phenomenon 
well known to poultry breeders, and has been repeatedly noticed in the case 
of Pheasants. We believe that in all cases wherein dissection was made 
after death this curious condition was found to be correlated with disease 
of the ovaries.—Ep. ] 
Breeding of the Forked-tailed Petrel on the Blasquets, Co, Kerry. 
—I have received a Petrel’s egg, pure white, which from its size 
(1:27 by -94 in.) must belong to this species. It was taken on the 
Tearaght, a lofty rocky island, one of the outermost of the Blasquets, 
which lie off the Dingle Peninsula, Co. Kerry, and was taken there by the 
light-keeper, Mr. Ryan, on the Ist July last. He sent it to me with eggs 
of the Storm Petrel, which breeds numerously both on the Tearaght and 
other islands in the same group. Mr. Ryan merely remarked that one of 
