NOTES AND QUERIES. 103 



Long-tailed Duck in Co. Waterford. — On Jan. 15th inst. I obtained 

 at a poulterer's in Dungarvan a specimen of the Long-tailed Duck, Harelda 

 glacialis, recently shot upon the estuary of the Brickey, western bay of 

 Dungarvan, by a man who told me that it was accompanied by five or six 

 others, some of which differed in colour, having more black upon them 

 The toughness of this bird's tissues inclined me to think, when skinning it, 

 that it was an old female, but its scapulars had a more reddish tint than 

 the rest of the upper surface, which was brown. This is the first instance 

 in which I have met with this northern oceanic species, which Mr. A. G. 

 More and Sir K. Payne Gallwey tell us is rare, except in the North of 

 Ireland. I see by 'The Field' of Jan. 18th that the Long-tailed Duck 

 has recently occurred on the coast of South Wales, and previous numbers 

 of that paper record other captures in the North of England. — R. J. Ussher 

 (Cappagh, Co. Waterford). 



Ornithological Notes from Co. Wexford. — The following notes on 

 birds, made in the past year in Co. Wexford, may be interesting to Irish 

 ornithologists. On Jan. 17th, 1889, ten Woodcock were shot at Caring- 

 byrne, as I learn from Mr. C. F. Dean Drake. Both Woodcock and Snipe 

 are very scarce this year in Wexford, and I hear the same report from 

 Waterford and Cork. On March 13th a white Missel Thrush was shot by 

 a fowler, near Carnsore. The only traces of colour in its plumage are 

 some dusty looking marks on the breast, which seem to do duty for spots. 

 On the 17th there was a Waterhen's nest at Dunbrody Park, with the 

 young birds already hatched. This seems an unusually early nest. On 

 April 11th I saw a Bittern, at Mr. T. W. Robinson's, Wexford. It was 

 shot, he tells me, by a gentleman out snipe-shooting, near Wexford, in 

 Feb. 1887. Mr. Robinson also tells me that another Bittern was shot 

 near Macmine Junction, about 1873 ; it is now in Liverpool. When down 

 at Rosslare, I did my best to find out whether any unrecorded Sand 

 Grouse visited the Wexford coast in 1888. But all that I conld learn 

 was that Mr. R. J. Ussher's bird (Zool. 1888, p. 301), was one of a party 

 of three birds. There appears also to have been a flock of twelve or 

 fifteen birds at Rosslare, but none seemed to have remained long. They 

 are said to have taken to the reclaimed slob-lands, whence they flew north- 

 wards. I got a wounded Brent Goose, shot during the winter, for a collec- 

 tion of live wildfowl kept at Kilmanock. It appears to belong to the light 

 variety mentioned in ' Yarrell' (ed. 4, iv. p. 293). From what I heard at 

 Rosslare from the fowlers and from Mr. Gibbon, who has a copy of the 4th 

 edition of ■ Yarrell,' and knows all the wildfowl which visit our coast, it is 

 certain that the Barnacle Goose occasionally visits the harbours and 

 lagoons of Co. Wexford. Mr. Gibbon mentioned two which were shot in 

 Tachumshin in 1888, and I heard of others. It is known to the fowlers as 

 the " King or White-headed Barnacle." On May 2nd some egg3 of the 



