DUBLIN NATURAL HISXOKV SOCIEIT. I2'i 



ON THE OCCUEEENCE OF THE GOLDEN OEIOLE, AND OTHER RARE BIRDS. BY 

 R. P. WILLIAMS, M. R. I. A. 



[Read June 6, 1862.] 



On behalf of S. Hawtrey Jones, Esq., J. P., MuUinabro, Waterford, I 

 have to present a very fine female specimen of that rare bird, the Golden 

 Oriole. Having heard of its occurrence, I applied to my friend, Mr. 

 H. D'Olier Grant, of Waterford, who spoke to Mr. Jones, and that 

 gentleman immediately sent an order to hand it to me for the Society. 



As to its capture, Mr. Jones writes : — 



"il/ay 16,1862. 



" I am glad to find that you have got the Golden Oriole safe. It was 

 shot near this on Satui'day, the 3d inst. It was by itself. One of my 

 little boys told his elder brother, when he saw it, that he saAV some days 

 previous one of the same description, but brighter in colour ; but I think 

 it was the same bird. Mr. Fleming shot near this, about two months 

 back, a hoopoe. He has it now stuffed." 



At the same time the bird here alluded to was obtained, another 

 female was preserved by Mrs. Glennon. I learned it was shot over Bray, 

 coimty of Wicklow. On examining the contents of the stomach, it was 

 found to be full of small beetles and vegetable matter. I am surprised 

 those beautiful birds are not more in request for aviaries. I recollect, in 

 1837, the young birds were to be bought at the Quai du Pontneuf, Paris, 

 for about a franc each, as well as hoopoes, hawfinches, woodpeckers, &c. 

 I brought home several of each, and presented them to the late Mr. J. 

 Egan, who had an aviaiy in Dorset-street. 



I have next to present, from Mr. "Warren, jun., of Moyview, Ballina, 

 to whom the Society is so much indebted, an Eared Grebe, which is either 

 a female or a young bird. 



Mr. Warren wiites as follows : — ''I send you for the ISTatural His- 

 tory Society the skin of a young Eared Grebe (P. auritus). As it is in the 

 first year's plumage, it will offer a strange contrast to the brilliant co- 

 lour of the fine specimen you already have. I shot it, February, 1852, in 

 the Moy channel, near Killala. There was a second bird in company, and 

 apparently in the same plumage. You will see in the list of birds which 

 I sent the Society the dates when I saw one or two other specimens, 

 which I have not the slightest doubt were of this species. I have strong 

 doubts of the extreme rarity of many birds supposed to be so, and I am 

 inclined to set it down to the want of observation of sportsmen, or their 

 indifference to any other than birds of game. Thus, in talking of this very 

 species before us, I find it recorded in ' The Field,' of the 17th of May, 

 that, among notices of ' rare birds on their migration, shot at Horsay-on- 

 the-Mere, about eight miles from Yarmouth, were two pairs of the I'^ared 

 Grebe, in full plumage, very fine specimens, and very rare birds indeed.' " 

 The presentation of these birds completes our collection of Grebes and the 

 Oriole, as the Society previously possessed a fine male Oriole, also shot in 



