ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM MAYO AND SLIGO. 129 



that I do not in the least believe that it was killed anywhere in 

 England, although the late Mr. Byne, of Taunton, and Mr. Trus- 

 cott, of Exeter, both believed in it. According to my experience, 

 the shooters of such rare British birds as the Great Black Wood- 

 pecker, Spotted Sandpiper, and Pine Grosbeak are generally 

 found to be dead when wanted to give evidence — an inconvenient 

 circumstance which naturally casts some doubt on the marvellous 

 statements attributed to them. 



ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM MAYO AND SLIGO. 

 By Robert Warren. 



The exceptionally mild temperature of the winter of 1889 — 90 

 had a considerable effect on the movements of many of our 

 birds, both residents and migrants, there being no frosts during 

 the season to limit the supply of food, or drive them to more 

 southerly haunts. November was mild and dry, the mercury 

 ranging from 58° to 33° during the month, and rain falling on 

 only fifteen days. 



December was also mild but very wet, there being only nine 

 dry days, and the thermometer registered 54° as the highest, 

 while the mercury marked 32° only once during the month. 

 January was an exceedingly wet and stormy month, the worst 

 I can remember. There was a continued succession of gales 

 until the 29th, and only seven dry days; while the average 

 maximum temperature was 47 J°, and the minimum 35f° ; the 

 mercury only three times falling to 32° and once to 29°, and on 

 the 29th the thermometer registered 50° by day and 44° that 

 night. The month of February began with a very mild tem- 

 perature ; on the 1st, with a S.W. wind, the mercury stood at 

 54° and 45°; but after the N.E. winds set in the nights were 

 colder than in the previous months, the thermometer marking on 

 some nights the freezing-point, and occasionally a degree or two 

 below it, and but once down to 29° and 28°. -The month was the 

 driest ever remembered in this part of the country,* there being 

 the very unusual number of twenty-one dry days ; while the 

 early part of March, on the contrary, was very wet, with a low 

 temperature, the coldest night of the season being that of 

 the 2nd, when the mercury fell to 25°. 



