NOTES AND QUERIES. 105 



then there is a sudden arrival of Thrushes some time during the present 

 month, and throughout the winter they are commoner than Blackbirds." A 

 bird seen at Fethard on Oct. 9 th corresponds so exactly with the descrip- 

 tion of an adult Black Tern, that I have no hesitation in putting it down 

 as such. It flew to sea. I know of no other occurrence of this bird in 

 Wexford. I must conclude with a brief reference to the kindness of Mr. 

 A. G. More, whose advice and assistance are always at the service of every 

 Irish naturalist ; of Mr. C. B. Moffatt, of Ballyhyland, to whom I am in- 

 debted for a list of the birds of his neighbourhood; and of Mr. E. A. 

 Gibbon, whose kindness and hospitality to me during a short visit to Ross- 

 lare I shall long remember. — G. Barrett-Hamilton (Kilmanock, New 

 Ross, Co. Wexford). 



Little Bittern in Devon. — Last June a Little Bittern was shot by a 

 farmer on the banks of the Okeraent, near Monk Okehampton, Devon, and 

 sent to our gardener for preservation. It was a fine bird, standing about 

 ten or twelve inches high. I have not heard of one being shot in our 

 neighbourhood for a long time. — H. Woollcombe (Morth Grange, Ex- 

 bourne, North Devon). 



Loxia bifasciata in Yorkshire. — I recorded the occurrence of an 

 immature example of this bird in the (Yorkshire) 'Naturalist,' No. 171, 

 October, 1889. This is the one referred to by Mr. Benson (p. 17), and by 

 Lord Clifton in « The Field ' for Dec. 7th, 1889. As it seems to have been 

 the first of the recent migration which has been ascertained to have been 

 seen in England, the above reference may be useful. I have recently heard 

 of five more in Bedfordshire ; four of these were shot by a schoolboy with a 

 catapult; two of them (an adult male and a female) I have seen in the 

 Modern School Museum in Bedford. — Henry H. Slater (Irchester 

 Vicarage, Wellingborough). 



Ardea virescens in Cornwall.— Towards the end of last year I saw 

 in the shop of Mr. Foot, the birdstuffer, in Bath, a small Heron which was 

 new to me, and which he told me had been, shot at large by a gamekeeper in 

 Cornwall during the past autumn. From an inspection of some skins at 

 the South Kensington Museum of Natural History, I have since been able 

 to determine that this bird is a young example of Ardea virescens, the 

 Common Green Heron of the United States. The bird shown to me was 

 in perfect feather, and had no appearance of having been in confinement, 

 and must be looked upon as another addition to the long list of stragglers 

 from North America which have visited this country. — Murray A. Mathew 

 (Buckland Dinham, Frome). 



[So many instances are on record of the occurrence in Great Britain 

 and Ireland of the American Bittern, Ardea lentiginosus, that there is no 

 a priori improbability of its smaller relative A. virescens having also found 



