ANATID.E. 



my notice in the liancls of a taxidermist, who was preserving them 

 for the museum of the Royal Dublin Society. 



In the following year I saw, with the same person — Mr. W. S. 

 Wall — another bird, wliicli had been obtained, early in March 

 1838, in the Queen's-county. He at the same time mentioned 

 that, in the severe weather of the winter of 1837-38, eight wild 

 swans were seen for two days in the bay, " close to the city of 

 Dublin,^' In January 1838, a flock of fourteen appeared in 

 the neighbourhood of Ballynaliinch, county Down ; one of them 

 which was wounded, lived in Montalto demesne, until the 9th of 

 July following, when it was killed by a dog. It was sent to a 

 taxidermist in Belfast to be preserved, and came under my notice 

 previous to being skinned, when the following description was 

 drawn up : — 



Length 5 feet 2 inches ; bill from point to forehead 4 inches 2 lines, — to rictus 

 4 inches 3 lines, — from eye to point 5 inches 3 lines. Tarsus 4 inches 9 lines ; mid- 

 dle toe and nail 6 inches lOi lines. Tail-feathers 20 in number. Colour : — feathers 

 from lower part of neck to vent, including those under the wings, tipped with rust- 

 colour ; remainder of under surface (from throat to neck, and from vent to end of 

 tail) white, with occasional faint indications of rust-colom*. Feathers on sides and toji of 

 head, nape, and neck for some distance below the nape tipped with rust-colour, which 

 is very intense on the forehead ; remainder of upper siu'face white. Legs and feet 

 greyish-black ; upper mandible at base gamboge-yeUow, which colom- advances on 

 its sides rather before the nostrils, remainder black ; lower mandible blackish at sides 

 and tip, yellowish horn-colour along centre, — short feathers covering the tibia tipped 

 with rust colour. 



A letter from John Vandeleur Stewart, Esq., dated Rockhill, 

 Letterkenny, September 21, 1840, informed me that he had 

 procured there, in winter, about two years before that time, a 

 specimen of Cygimsferus. A description of the bird was kindly 

 forwarded, fully proving, from anatomical as well as external 

 characters, that it was the species named. This individual 

 was most probably obtained in the great Anatida winter of 

 1837-38, when the birds of this family were remarkably plentiful 

 on the coasts of Great Britain and temperate continental Europe. 

 It is singular that although many more specimens of C^g. Bewickii 

 than of C. ferns killed in Ireland have come under my own obser- 

 vation and that of my correspondents, I do not possess a single 



