83 



story ' for 18S0 (vol. iii. p. 29). It is there merely mentioned as " a 

 third specimen, lately mounted by a London bird preserver", and 

 no particulars respecting it have yet appeared. It was shot by Cap- 

 tain Bonhara of the 10th Hussars (who most kindly ordered it to be 

 sent hither from Brighton for my inspection), at the end of Novem- 

 ber or beginning of December, 1827, near Garvagh, in the county 

 of Londonderry, being the second individual killed in Ireland. In 

 a letter to a mutual friend, Captain Bonham remarks of this bird, 

 that it sprung from the side of a high heathery hill, from which 

 common Snipes, Scol. Gallinago, Linn., were at the same time raised, 

 but that it did not call as they do. His want of success in obtaining 

 it before the third shot afforded Captain Bonham an opportunity of 

 I'emarking its disregard for his presence, which was manifested by 

 its alighting quite near again, after being fired at, in the manner of 

 the Jack Snipe, Scol. Gallimda, Linn. 



Lams Sabini, Sab. A third specimen of this bird occurred last 

 autumn in Ireland. It was shot on or about the 15th of September, 

 ISS-l, on the shore of Belfast Bay, near Claremont, the residence of 

 Mrs. Clewlon, in whose possession it now is. It is a young bird of 

 the year, and in plumage similar to the other two individuals of this 

 species, which I had the satisfaction of announcing to the Linnean 

 Society last year as having been obtained in Ireland. — W. T. 



Mr. Thompson subsequently read the following notice respecting 

 the 



Larus Argentatoides, Swains. & Rich. " On submitting six mature 

 specimens of the Herring Gull of the north of Ireland to a critical 

 examination, similar to that pursued in the second volume of the 

 'Fauna Boreali-Americana' by Mr. Swainson and Dr. Richardson, 

 I ascertained their identity with the Lar. Argentatoides of that work 

 (vol. ii. p. 417). Between the largest and the smallest of these spe- 

 cimens there was a difference in total length of from 22^^ to 244- 

 inches, and in their tarsi of from 27 to 32 lines. The second quill 

 in two individuals, exhibited, in addition to the white tip, * a round 

 white spot on its inner web' ; in this respect agreeing with the Lar. 

 Argentatoides as described in the work referred to, and previously 

 by C. L. Bonaparte in his ' Synopsis of the Birds of the United 

 States' (Ann. of Lye. of New York, vol. ii. p. 360); the second 

 quill in three of these specimens wants this white spot, in which par- 

 ticular they agree with the Lar. argentatus, as contradistinguished 

 by Bonaparte from the Lar. Argentatoides : the same quill in the 

 sixth specimen is in an intermediate state, a round white spot, not 

 more than -j- of an inch across, appearing on it in the one wing ; the 

 second quill of the other wing in the same individual exhibiting a 

 white spot fully half an inch in diameter : thus proving that this 

 marking is so inconstant that it should not be relied on as a cha- 

 racter."— W. T. 



Mr. Thompson finally exhibited, from the collection of Mr. Ball, 



