Vlll PREFACE. 



The following additional information, thought worthy of a 

 place here, has been obtained while tins volume was passing 

 through the press : — 



Ash-colouked Harrier. — Circus cineraceus, Mont, (sp.) A 

 second individual of this species (the first is noticed in vol. i. p. 427) 

 was shot about the 1st of October, 1849, at the Scalp, county of 

 Wicklow, and procured for the Dublin University Museum. The sto- 

 mach of the bird contained the remains of frogs. Its sex was not 

 looked to by the preserver, but judging from Jenyns' description (p. 90), 

 it is a female nearly in full adult plumage. To that description it is only 

 necessary to add the following notes of the individual. Nape rufous- 

 white ; " above and below the eye, a streak of dull white ;" wing- 

 coverts with broad ferruginous markings. The tail-feathers generally 

 have five bands of dark brown, alternating with which the central pair 

 haveTour bands of very dark greyish-brown, which colour prevails on 

 the outer web of the feather next to them, but on its inner web these 

 bands are rufous. This colour, but of a brighter tint, is exhibited 

 throughout the same bands of the four outer tail-feathers on each side. 

 Roller. — Coracias garrula, Linn. In addition to what appears at 

 vol. i. p. 366, respecting this bird's occurrence in Ireland, I have to 

 state on the authority of the Earl of Courtown, that his gamekeeper 

 shot one at Courtown, co. Wexford, on the 6th of October, 1849. The 

 bird having been sent to Mr. Glennon, of Dublin, to be preserved, I 

 was informed to that effect by Mr. Warren, and through the kindness 

 of the nobleman just named, learned when and where it was obtained. 

 The specimen is in nearly adult plumage. 



Black Grouse. — At p. 37, it is remarked that I had not heard of 

 the success attendant on the introduction of six brace of these birds 

 procured in Scotland by Lord Courtown's gamekeeper and turned 

 out on his lordship's estate in the south of Ireland. I have, however, 

 through the polite attention of that nobleman, since learned that these 

 birds remained quiet in the wood in which they were set at liberty in 



