OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS IN MID-WALES. 



123 



showed what a good observer he was by his statement of Ireland, 

 that " mustelce hie multce sed minutce plurimum et subrufce." * 



In conclusion, we should like to mention that there is in the 

 County Cork a pack of hounds called the Cork Weasel Hounds, 

 which, as a sporting institution, we believe to be unique. These 

 hounds are hunted on foot from April 1st to the end of October, 

 and appear to give good sport at a time of year when there 

 is no fox-hunting; but their best month is May, and after that 

 September and October. Some idea of the sport obtained may 

 be gathered from the accounts which have been published from 

 time to time in the columns of ' The Irish Sportsman.' 



[We are not, of course, responsible for the views expressed by our 

 correspondents ; but lest it should be supposed that " silence gives consent," 

 we must here take occasion to protest against the adoption of the barbarous 

 name Assogue proposed for the Stoat of Ireland. Whether the animal be 

 or be not specifically distinct from the English Stoat, a point upon which 

 we are at present by no means satisfied, we see no reason why it should not 

 be referred to as the Irish Stoat, just as we speak of the Irish Hare. We 

 cannot admit that the spelling of an Irish name as it is pronounced makes 

 it English. — Ed.] 



OBSERVATIONS ON BIRDS IN MID-WALES. 



By J. H. Saltee. 



(University College, Aberystwyth.) 



During the past year three valuable local lists of Welsh birds 

 have been contributed to * The Zoologist ' by Messrs. F. C. Raw- 

 lings, Harold Raeburn, and O. V. Aplin respectively. Taken in 

 conjunction with the appearance of the Rev. Murray A. Mathew's 

 ' Birds of Pembrokeshire,' they have thrown much light upon the 

 distribution of birds in the Principality, hitherto perhaps, ornitho- 

 logically, the most neglected part of the British Islands. Upon 

 the same subject the following observations may be acceptable as 

 confirming, and in some cases supplementing, what has been 

 already published. My notes are derived from observations 

 made at Aberystwyth during a residence there of rather more 

 than three years, and the remarks about each species apply 

 primarily to that neighbourhood. At the same time I have 



* Harting, "Annals of Irish Zoology," ' Zoologist,' Nov. 1881, p. 38. 



