Contributions to the Natural History of Ireland. 4:27 



Sect. 4 Gymnosaccharum. 



Spiculse acute ; folia versus apicem supra scabra, . S. Baka, Ham. 



Spiculse obtusifi : 



^ ,. . .,.,... ( S.fusca,Ro-sb.'^(S. 



toliaversus apicem supra puis brevissimisaspera, -. Iv rpw«a Ham ^ 



Folia utrinque laevia, , . . "S*. Modhuja, Ham. 



How far these are really distinct species, I will not here inquire. 

 The three of the last section were perhaps all included by Rox- 

 burgh under his S.fuscum. As to S. Sinense, it is as commonly 

 cultivated in the West Indies as S. officinarum, and is indeed the 

 S. officinarum of Kunth's En. Graminum. I have not yet had an 

 opportunity of examining any specimen referable to the description 

 given by Roxburgh of his S. Sara. All the others I have seen. 



Arlary, lOlh October 1837. 



VI Contributions to the Natural History of Ireland. By Wil- 

 liam Thompson, Esq., Vice-President of the Belfast Natural 

 History Society. 



No. 4. — On the Birds of the Order Insessores. 



Cinereous Shrike, — Lanius excubitor, Linn. — This species has 

 in a few instances been obtained in various parts of Ireland. In the 

 north, Mr Templeton records two specimens from Down and An- 

 trim, (Mag. Nat. Hist. Vol. i. p. 404, New Series,) and three indi- 

 viduals have subsequently been procured in these counties. In the 

 former, one in mature plumage was shot at Echlinville, late in the 

 autumn about fifteen years ago, and in the latter, an adult male was 

 killed at Beechmount, near Belfast, in November 1826. This latter 

 is preserved in Dr J. D. Marshall's collection. A second indivi- 

 dual was in company with it, and remained about the place for a 

 few weeks afterwards. Near the same locality, another shrike was 

 shot during the few days of frost that prevailed at the end of Janu- 

 ary 1835. One has been mentioned to me as obtained near Mul- 

 lingar, in Westmeath, and two in the county Dublin. Of these lat- 

 ter, one was killed on Shankill mountain in 1822, or 1823, and the 

 other in the Phoenix Park about 1831. I have been informed that 

 it has occurred in Tipperary more than once, and Mr R. Ball tells 

 me that he has seen a specimen which was shot near the city of 

 Cork in 1824. 



I cannot say whether this species has ever bred in Ireland. (See 

 Selby's 111. Brit. Orn. Vol. i. p. 148, 2d ed., and Journal of a Na- 



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