NOTES AND QUEEIES. S5 



Weasel had beeu carrying the body of another full-grown Weasel ! The 

 question is, had the one Weasel killed the other, and was it carrying it 

 off to eat it, or was it a case of a faithful mate or friend bearing off the 

 dead for burial ? I should add that there were no marks on the dead 

 Weasel to indicate that it had died a violent death. — Charles Cook 

 (Wiadygates, Fife). 



BIRDS. 



Ruddy Sheldrake in Ireland. — Having made enquiries about three 

 separate captures of this species in June and July last, I beg to offer the 

 following particulars. Mr. Robert Twiss, who killed two on the Shannon 

 on the 16th June, writes : — " The two Ruddy Sheldrakes which I shot were 

 male and female. When I first saw them they were feeding on a sandy 

 beach. I sent my man in a boat to drive them over to me, but they got 

 up wild and flew down the Shannon over half a mile, and pitched on a 

 strand at the mouth of Cool River, where it empties itself into the Shannon. 

 They only remained there for a few seconds, when they got up again and 

 flew at least two miles down the river, and I sent my man after them. He 

 succeeded in turning them back to me, and when they settled on the stream 

 I got behind some bushes and stalked them. I am sure they could not have 

 been escaped birds, for they were so very wary." Mr. Twiss adds that 

 William Goggin, a farmer, who lives near O'Brien's Bridge, has now 

 preserved in his possession two Egyptian Geese, male and female, which 

 he shot about nine years ago on the same part of the Shannon. The second 

 occurrence of Ruddy Sheldrakes is reported by Mr. Rohu, bird and animal 

 preserver, Cork, who states that on the 26th June Mr. P. O'Connell wounded 

 one of these birds out of a flock of six on the sea, at Bullen's Bay, near the 

 Old Head of Kinsale. He recovered it a few days later on a bog near the 

 sea, and it was sent to Mr. Rohu for preservation. The third capture above 

 referred to was made by the keeper of Mr. Stephen Greehan, of Clonmeen 

 Banteer, in an inland and northern part of the Co. Cork, between thirty- 

 five and forty miles in a direct line from the Old Head of Kinsale. About 

 this specimen Mr. Greehan writes : — " My keeper shot it about July 16th 

 (as near as I can recollect), as three of them rose out of a small pond in the 

 middle of a field about a quarter of a mile from the river (Black water?). 

 They got up like ordinary Wild Ducks, and all appeared to be alike." 

 I inspected this bird (a male in fine plumage) and the female shot near 

 Kinsale, both of which appeared to be adults, and could see no traces of 

 confinement. The ends of the primaries in each were a little worn, but 

 this was only the result of natural wear, none of the feathers being at all 

 broken or draggled. Even assuming that the birds met with near Clon- 

 meen belonged to the Kinsale flock, which is by no means proved, we have 

 still two distinct captures of this species at points so far apart as Kinsale 

 and the Shannon near Lough Derg. The season was certainly one at 



