notes and queries. 75 



ment. American naturalists give the Martinique Gallinule a character for 

 migration, and those who are inclined to think that all Porphyrios found 

 in this country must be escaped birds should read Lord Lilford's remarks 

 in the ' Birds of Northamptonshire' (part ii. p. 39). Messrs. Baird, Brewer, 

 and Ridgway, writing of the Martinique Gallinule (Birds of N. Amer. 

 p. 385), remark, " it is a great wanderer, or in its migrations is driven by 

 tempests to distant points," and refer to some being met with at sea. 

 Incidentally Mr. More mentions that he has discovered a hitherto 

 unrecorded Irish Green-backed Gallinule, P. smaragdonotus t killed so long 

 ago as October, 1873. This almost synchronises with another recorded by 

 Mr. Hancock (I. c), caught in Northumberland in August, 1873, and which, 

 though mentioned in his list as a Purple Gallinule, has since been ascer- 

 tained by him to have been a green-backed bird, being doubtless also 

 P. smaragdonotus. It is only fair, however, to add that about the time it 

 was captured, Mr. Hancock heard that "a bird of the kind" had escaped 

 from a sailor at Newcastle. But, setting this aside as doubtful, there still 

 remain nine unimpugned instances of the occurrence of P. smaragdonotus in 

 the British Islands, — viz., one in Scotland, two in Ireland, and six in 

 England, — besides six instances of the occurrence of Porphyrio caruleus, 

 viz., one in Scotland, one in Ireland, and four in England. Mr. More has 

 alluded to an example of Porphyrio cmuleus in Mr. Marshall's collection 

 It was bought by him at Mr. Troughton's sale in 1869, and subsequently 

 given to Mr. Murray Mathew, who some years ago obliged me with a sight 

 of it. In the sale catalogue it is entered as : — " 539. Purple Moorhen, 1, 

 killed in Ireland, 1846, &c, Annals of Natural History." Some time 

 afterwards I wrote to the late Mr. Chute to ask if this was his bird ; he 

 replied in the negative, but gave me several interesting particulars relative 

 to the capture of his specimen in Kerry. These particulars are at 

 Mr. Mores service for his new List. — J. H. Gurney, Jun. (Keswick Hall, 

 Norwich). 



Crane near Bridgwater. — A fine specimen of the Crane, Grus com- 

 munis, was shot at Country- Sea-Wall, one mile eastward of Stolford, near 

 Bridgwater, on the 5th December last, by Mr. Richard Chilcott, of that 

 place. It was taken to Sir Alexander Acland Hood, Bart., St. Audries, 

 for whom it has been preserved by Mr. Wm. Bidgood, Curator of the 

 Taunton Museum. About twenty -four years ago another Crane was shot 

 near Ham-Sea- Wall, half-a-mile westward of Stolford, which is now in the 

 collection of Mr. Chas. Haddon, of Taunton. These particulars were com- 

 municated to one of the Taunton papers by Mr. James Rawlings. — M. A . 

 Mathew (Buckland Binham, Frome). 



Crossbills in Ireland. — The years 1888-89 will always be remembered 

 in the ornithological annals of this country for the remarkable invasion of 



