12 DUBLIN NATTTBAL HISTOKY SOCIETY. 



line of coast extending from Shanganagh to Dalkey possessed peculiar 

 charms as one of the most interesting localities in the neighbourhood of 

 this city. Sheltered, as the southern slope of the hill is, from the north- 

 em and westerly blasts by the eminences called Rochestown, Killiney, 

 and the Telegraph Hills, and borrowing, likewise, protection to the 

 south from the Bray ridges, it, even amidst the harshest weather, pos- 

 sesses a genial temperature, favourable to the development of several of 

 our more delicate plants and animals, and hence, here flourished many 

 interesting species of both, which are either rare or wanting in other 

 parts of the "Eastern" district. It were foreign to the object of this paper 

 to enumerate these now, though such a list would hereafter be of ex- 

 treme value, as the rapid conversion of the south slope of the hill into 

 building ground threatens soon to obliterate the only Dublin localities 

 known for some of the rarer species. To-night I have the honour of 

 laying before the Society a proof of this assertion in a pair of black Red- 

 starts {Plmnicura tithys), obtained by myself at this locality — a species, 

 as far as I can make out, which has not been before recorded in the 

 county of Dublin. 



The account of the occurrence of the species is as follows : — On the 

 13th of December, while seated near the white granite rocks which 

 bound the clay cliffs of Mount Malpas, and engaged watching a robin, 

 whose tameness was such that he almost fed out of my hands, I remark- 

 ed a bird, aboat the size of a stonechat, perch on the rocks within three 

 or four feet of the stone on which I was sitting. The peculiarity of his 

 form — intermediate between that of the hedge-sparrow and the stonechat 

 — was remarkable ; and it also appeared to me that the colour of his 

 breast was neither the grayish black of the one, nor the greenish olive 

 of the other, but more of a purple hue. His manners, while partaking 

 of the jerky motions of the chat, differed in being more graceful and 

 undulatory . I remarked also, that, when his wings were half expanded, 

 the white bar, though less in extent, was more defined. While still ia 

 doubt as to his species, although he reminded me much of the redstart, 

 my friend, the robin, also observed him, and, as is the custom of that 

 species, jealous of intrusion on his territory, flew at and mobbed the 

 stranger, driving him from his perch. The moment he took wing, all 

 doubt as to his genus was removed by the fiery red of the tail feathers 

 as they were expanded in flight. Having no gun, I was obliged to con- 

 tent myself with observing him only, which I did for fully three-quar- 

 ters of an hour, during which he frequently alighted not more than three 

 feet from me. He flitted along from stone to stone, occasionally alight- 

 ing on the wet sand at the water's edge, and picking among the debris 

 of the tide. If I endeavoured to approach too closely, he immediately 

 returned to his perch on the rocks and stones which here cover the em- 

 bankment. The robin again and again pursued and mobbed him. 

 After the lapse of some little time, a male whinchat {Saxicola ruletra) 

 made his appearance and joined in the same amusement. Eeing obliged 

 to catch a train, I had to leave the three birds thus engaged. 



The following day I again visited the same locality, this time armed 



