240 scolopacid^;. 



near Belfast, in the winter of 1818 or 1819 ; and, in February 1845, 

 a bird with about a dozen white feathers in one wing, and a few in 

 the other, was killed at Tollymore Park. 



Major T. Walker, in a letter to me, written in April 1846, and dated from the 

 Lodge, Kyle, Enniscorthy, remarked : — " I have shot a great deal of cock and snipe in 

 Carniola (by Laibach), Styria, and Hungary, and never found, among the woodcocks, 

 more than the one species such as we meet with in Ireland ; but the year before last 

 I shot here, in Wexford, a cock different from any I have ever met with, and of 

 which I have since seen a specimen in the cabinet of Natural History at Vienna, 

 under the name of Scolojiax saturata. Although in full condition, it was much 

 smaller than the usual cocks ; the breast was as light- coloured as in the common, but 

 of a reddish instead of a greyish-brown. On the neck, back, and shoulders, there 

 was not any of the yellowish-hrown markings, but all were of a rich, deep brown. 

 The entire of the brown colouring of the breast, back, shoulders, &c, would be given 

 by different shades of burnt terra-sienna. The first long feather of each wing exhi- 

 bited a marked difference from those of any other cock I have seen, by being barred 

 with blackish-brown and buff on the outer web, where others have a plain buff or 

 white stripe, or are chequered with these colours. The form of the dark markings 

 also differs, by being pyramidal. The feathers resemble the second long ones in the 

 wing of the ordinary woodcock." Major Walker observed further, at a subsequent 

 date, in reply to some queries : — " I am well acquainted with the difference in size 

 and plumage of the male and female woodcock, as my favourite diversion is cock and 

 snipe-shooting > and I have, I believe, shot more of these birds here (co. Wexford) 

 each year than any person in the neighbourhood. On ground which I had in Styria, 

 I shot upwards of ninety cocks in one month (November) ; still I never met with a 

 woodcock of which I had the least doubt except this one. The man who has attended 

 me shooting for upwards of ten years, on taking it up, said instantly, ' Here's a sort 

 of cock we never met before.' Looking at Yarrell's plate of Scol. Sabini, it is cer- 

 tainly not the bird, as it resembles a snipe more than a cock, and has not the brown 

 bars on the top of the head, nor the barred wing-feathers [1st primaries]." I have 

 thought it proper to put the above description on record, though unable to give any 

 positive opinion on the species of the bird. Possibly it may have been a small speci- 

 men, differing in colour only from the ordinary woodcock. The Scol. saturata of 

 Dr. Horsfield, as originally described, it could hardly have been. His description 

 of the species is : — ■" S. rostro subelongato apice tuberculato, supra ex nigro saturatis- 

 simo castaneoque variegata subtus pallidior. 



" This is one of the rarest of Javan birds, found once only near a mountain -lake at 

 an elevation of 7,000 feet above the ocean. 



"At the base of the lower mandible is a small whitish spot ; the auterior part of the 

 neck is transversely banded with black and chestnut ; the breast aud abdomen are 

 sooty-black, with irregular dusky bands." All that is said of dimensions is, length 

 twelve inches. (Dr. Horsfield on Birds of Java in ' Linnean Transactions,' vol. xiii. 

 p. 191 ; 1821.) 



Mr. Dillwyn stated, in his 'Fauna and Flora of Swansea,' published in 1848 



