152 ANATIB^. 



him, but iiusuccessfully. This species, according to Mr. R. Chute, 

 is an occasional winter visitant to the coast of Kerry; an "old 

 pair " shot in Dingle Bay is in his collection. 



The preceding notes indicate that this beautiful species is rather 

 rare on the coast of Ireland, which it visits in very limited num- 

 bers, as it does the coast of England generally, though it is com- 

 mon on a great part of that of Scotland, increasing much in num- 

 ber northwards. Very interesting accounts of its habits there 

 are given in St. John's 'Wild Sports of the Highlands' (p. 131); 

 and in the ' Zoologist' (vol. vi. p. 2292) by the Rev. James Smith, 

 as observed by him near Banff. The late Mr. G. Matthews, on 

 his return from Norway, reported these birds to me as plentiful 

 all along the coast, particularly at Bergsfiord, Tromsoe, and at 

 a large island near the latter place, called Dyroe. He once killed 

 ten with one barrel, and tliree with the second, out of a large 

 flock, and with No. 7 shot ; this supply came very opportunely, 

 as his party were at the time " hard up " for food. September 

 and October were the months in which the greatest number of 

 these birds were seeu there. 



The Harlequin Duck, Clangula histrionica. Anas histrionica, Linn, 

 (sp.), not yet met with in Ireland, lias, in a few instances, been killed 

 on the coast of Great Britain, at widely different localities, on each 

 side of the island, as the Orkneys and Devonsliire,* Norfolk and 

 Cheshire. On the 10th and 11th of July, 1849, a flock, consisting of 

 four adult males, was seen by Captain May on a lake close to the en- 

 trance of the Salten Fiord, Norway. He and his party, wishing to 

 obtain them for specimens, went in pursuit, and tried for a long time 

 to get a shot, but in vain, owing to the wildness of the birds. France 

 and Germany are the two most southern countries in Europe, named 

 in Yarrell's work as visited (and very rarely) by this bird. One in- 

 dividual is recorded in De Selys' ' Fauna of Belgium' (p. 147). It is 

 a northern species of the European and American continents. 



* According to Dr. E. Battersby, of Torquay, a small flock frequented the bay 

 there during the winter of 1 846-4-7, from which he procured a male and female. — 

 ' Zoologist,' vol. V. p. 1697- A few odd birds had previously been obtained on the 

 gouthem coast of Devonshire (Yarr.) 



