310 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Museum, with the result that both referees expressed themselves satisfied 
that it was an undoubted egg of the Stock Dove.—J. Gorpon HoLmEs 
(Vicar of Antrim). 
[The egg referred to was forwarded by Mr. R. Lloyd Patterson, and 
from its size and shape, as well as from the description of the nesting-place, 
we have no doubt it was that of a Stock Dove. This is not the first time 
that this bird has been ascertained to breed in Ireland. The late Lord 
Clermont found a pair nesting in a crevice of a rocky hillside between 
Louth and Armagh, and it has also been found breeding in the Co. Down. 
See ‘ Zoologist,’ 1877, p. 883.—Ep.] 
The Extinct Starling of Reunion (Fregilupus varius).—Time alone 
can prove whether we are right in calling the Fregilupus an extinct species, 
for many people have imagined that the bird still exists in the interior 
forests of the Island of Réunion; but as year after year passes by, and no 
specimens are discovered, we fear that we must class the Starling of 
Réunion, along with the Dodo and other birds of the Mascarene Islands, 
as having been exterminated by the hand of man. ‘The earliest mention of 
the Fregilupus is believed to be that of Flacourt, who, in an account of a 
voyage to Madagascar, speaks of a bird called the “Tivouch,” found in 
Madagascar, Bourbon, and the Cape, and described as being ‘‘ black and 
grey, with a fine crest.” The species was for along time supposed to 
inbabit the Cape, and Montbeillard calls it the “ Huppe noire et blanche 
du Cap de Bonne Espérance.” Its crested head and curved bill were 
evidently the cause of the bird being called a Hoopoe, as was done by most 
of the older writers, until Levaillant in 1806 put it down as a Merops or 
Bee-eater. The latter author knew of eight specimens at least, two in the 
Paris Museum, one in the possession of each of the following persons,— 
MM. Gigot Dorey, Mauduit, l’Abbé Aubry, M. Poissonier, one in the 
collection of M. Raye at Amsterdam, and one in Levaillant’s own collection. 
The fate of most of these specimens is unknown at the present day; they 
have doubtless decayed or been destroyed, as the mode of preservation of 
animals at the beginning of the century was by no means perfect. In 
1833 a very fine specimen was sent by Mr. Nivoy to the Paris Museum, 
where lately we saw it, along with a more ancient individual, doubt- 
less one of the two known to Levaillant. The same Museum also 
possesses two specimens in spirit. The only representative of the genus 
Fregilupus in this country has hitherto been a skeleton in Prof. Newton's 
possession. This individual was shot in 1833 by the late Jules Verreaux, 
who gave it to Prof. Newton. We are happy to announce, however, that 
the Trustees of the British Museum have recently acquired a very fine 
example of this extinct Starling, one too which, curiously enough, was not 
known to Dr. Hartlaub when he gave in 1877 the list of specimens 
supposed to exist in Museums. The bird now in the Natural History 
