Recent Advances in Irish Ornithology . 21 



further varied from those of Great Britain. The Irish dipper 

 differed from that of England in its possessing wider black 

 borders to the feathers of its upper parts, so that its back appeared 

 almost black in freshly-moulted examples, also in having a more 

 restricted rufous pectoral area. Our coal-tit was announced by 

 Mr. Ogilvie-Grant to be a distinct species, for which he proposed 

 the name Parus Hibernicus, but further research had elicited the 

 fact thai in this species in Ireland there is a considerable amount 

 of intergrading, pointing to its [jrobably being entitled only to 

 sub- specific rank. The Irish form differs from that of England in 

 having the occipital spot and cheeks mustard-yellow instead of 

 white ; whilst the sides, flanks, and upper tail coverts of our form 

 are cinnamon-coloured. The latter feature, the lecturer said, was 

 more or less pronounced in all the Irish specimens he had the 

 opportunity of examining, but the head patches had been 

 invariably white except in the case of young birds. The jay of 

 Ireland differed strikingly from that of England in the dark rufous 

 colouring of the sides of the head, ear coverts, and under parts, 

 and in its darker crest, the feathers of the forehead being black, 

 fringed with reddish buff; those of the crown edged with rufous 

 pink and more strongly barred with blue than in the British jay, 

 the measurements of the tail and wing being also slightly less. 

 Speaking generally, our avifauna must be considered as fairly 

 stable, but a few instances of species decreasing or increasing in 

 numbers were patent. Among those whose numbers and range 

 were diminishing were instanced the goldfinch, birds of prey 

 (eagles, buzzards, harriers, hawks, and falcons), the quail, and the 

 roseate tern. Several instances of the increase and spread of 

 species in Ireland were alluded to, among them being the starling, 

 the tree-sparrow, a few years ago only known in Ireland from 

 County Dublin, but now found to breed also in Mayo, London- 

 derry, and Donegal : the stock-dove, first observed in Ireland in 

 1875, ^ut "f^w known to nest in about a dozen counties; the 

 tufted duck, not known as an Irish breeder previous to 1877, but 



