164 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



amongst the London ornithologists as to the fact of this Owl 

 being shot in Ireland, and as I wished to dispose of my native 

 birds by sale, it struck me that Mr. Ussher, being practically the 

 discoverer of this bird, was the person entitled to it," &c. 



Accordingly Dr. Burkitt most kindly sent me the bird, and 

 I presented it to the Science and Art Museum, Dublin. 



When presenting this Owl to me in Sept. 1882, Dr. Burkitt 

 wrote : — " Happening unfortunately at the time it came into my 

 possession to be very fully occupied, I took but scant notice of 

 this bird, merely inserting the locality of capture, the donor (now 

 several years dead), skinning, preserving, mounting, and placing 

 it amongst my Irish birds as you discovered it. This bird when 

 presented to me, Jan. 27 th, 1851, was apparently some days dead, 

 and struck me at the time as having been a good deal handled (by 

 its numerous examiners after Mr. Dobbyn had shot it), but was 

 brought to me in the flesh. Mr. Dobbyn stated it had been shot 

 in Belle Lake plantations. No doubt this bird may very possibly 

 have been an escape from one of the numerous vessels passing up 

 the Suir to Waterford." 



On Dec. 8th, 1882, Dr. Burkitt, again writing to me about 

 the Owl, in reply to my further enquiries, said : — "I am positive 

 poor Mr. Dobbyn never intended to play me any practical joke or 

 trick of any kind, and firmly believe that he shot the bird himself. 

 The idea or suggestion that the bird was ' obtained through a 

 dealer' ! is, to say the least of it, to my mind perfectly ridiculous 

 and far-fetched, when it came to me in the flesh! and requires no 

 further comment. ... I still adhere to the idea that it may 

 have been an escaped bird. ... I can not imagine the bird 

 died in confinement, for its claws, legs and whole plumage, though 

 much tossed, had not any appearance of a caged bird." 



Dr. Burkitt failed to sell his collection in its entirety, and 

 afterwards presented to the Science and Art Museum, Dublin, his 

 Baillon's Crake, and on my visiting him at Belmullet he gave me 

 an undetermined Warbler taken there marked " Whitethroat ? " 

 which proved to be the Barred Warbler, and is now in the same 

 museum ; and he gave the bulk of his collection in Waterford 

 to his brother Archdeacon Burkitt. Thus the history of his 

 collecting during sixty years was marked by many acts of dis- 

 interested generosity. To my knowledge he never sold a single 

 bird. Persons who approached him with offers to buy this and 



