218 ALCID^. 



fore, to find that this bird is not only equally common in the 

 south as in the north of Ireland ; but that it nidifies as frequently 

 on the rocky coasts of the former as on those of the latter por- 

 tion of the island. 



THE LITTLE AUK. 



Eotche. 



Mercjulus melanoleucos, Eay. 

 Alca alle, Linn. 

 Uria „ Temm. 



Can only be recorded positively as an occasional winter 



visitant. 



Its occurrence in Ireland was noticed in a communication wliich 

 I made to the Zoological Society of London (Proceedings Z. S. 

 1834, p. 30), after having seen a specimen, which was shot at 

 Wexford on the 26th of December, 1831, in the collection of 

 Dr. R. Graves of Dublin. I have since learned that the species 

 was obtained in that quarter long before the period mentioned. 

 According to an entry in an old Donation-book of Trinity College 

 Museum (supplied to me by ]\ir. R. Ball), it appears that the 

 Rev. J. Elgee, of Wexford, " presented a bird, called the little auk 

 or little diver (Penn. 233), driven on the coast of Wexford by 

 the storms of January 1791." — The specimen is not now extant, 

 but the reference to "Pennant, 233," evinces the correct appli- 

 cation of the name to this species. In March 1834, I was 

 informed by Mr. Glennon, that in the course of his " practice " 

 as a bird-preserver, two recent examples of the little auk had 

 been sent to him, the one killed at Wexford, the other at Baldoyle, 

 near Dublin. On the 5th of December, 1835, one of these birds 

 was found dead, but in a perfectly fresh state, at Portmarnock 

 strand, some miles fi-om that city. A letter from Mr. T. W. 

 Warren, dated October 16, 1841, announced that he saw on that 

 day at Glennon's shop three little auks, which were shot by Mr. 



