144 Mr. W. Thompson on the Birds of Ireland. 



town of lloscommon. Mr. 11. Ball, during the many years of hi.s re- 

 sidence at Youghal, saw five of these birds, which were at intervals 

 procured in the neighbourhood, and heard of others ; — in his collec- 

 tion are two specimens from that locality. In 1827 I was informed 

 by a naturalist that he had seen a hoopoe which was obtained in fine 

 adult plumage a few years before that time in the month of February 

 near Ballynahinch, county of Down. Dr. J. D. Marshall has recorded 

 " one which was shot [at Balbriggan] in the county of Dublin, and 

 another [at Lord LlandafFs] in Tipperary, in 1828." In a letter from 

 Dr. Harvey of Cork, written in March 1837, it was stated that " a 

 hoopoe was shot by Mr. Wilson, jun., about four years since at Cape 

 Clear, and sent to the Cork Institution." On Sept. 19, 1833, one 

 which I saw was procured at Kirkcubbin, county of Down. In 

 February or March 1834, as I am informed by Dr. Burkitt of Water- 

 ford, one of these birds was obtained at Kilbarry, near that city : at 

 Banbridge (county Down) another was killed on the 6th of October, 

 1834*, and sent to the Belfast Museum ; its weight (according to 

 Dr. J. D. Marshall) was 3 oz. 1 dr. ; the contents of the stomach were 

 caterpillars and other insect food. Captain Walker of Belmont, near 

 Wexford, has written to me that " in the winter of 1834 two hoopoes 

 were seen at Killinick [in that county] , but neither was shot, although 

 a gentleman was constantly after them." At the beginning of Sep- 

 tember 1835, a specimen which was submitted to my examination 

 was procured near Coleraine, in the north ; and on the 26th of the 

 same month another was shot within a few miles of Killaloe, and sent 

 to the Rev. Thomas Knox of Toomavara : in its stomach were found 

 " caterpillars and a beetle." Mr. H. H. Dombrain has informed me 

 of his having seen a hoopoe which was shot in the county of Galway 

 on the 20th of October, 1837. One was killed in the county of Kil- 

 kenny on the 1st of April, 1 838. The following paragraph was copied 

 from the Limerick Chronicle into the Northern Whig, a Belfast news- 

 paper, on Sept. 13, 1838 : — " A few days past a bird rarely, if ever, 

 known in this country was seen at Fairymouht, O'Brien's Bridge, 

 the residence of H. Orlando Bridgeman, Esq., pursued by magpies, 

 to whom the new visitor appeared a perfect stranger. The same 

 bird was found dead a day or two after in that vicinity, having, it is 

 thought, fallen a victim to its pursuers. Its wings were marked by 

 regular streaks of white and black ; the bill long, like that of the 

 snipe, but very slightly curved ; the head and neck of a light brown 

 or yellow, with a beautiful tuft or crown of feathers on the head, the 

 extremity of which was also coloured like the wings. The little 

 wanderer was of delicate and graceful symmetry. We presume it 

 had escaped from some aviary. The bird is not indigenous to thesa 

 countries." The hoopoe is doubtless meant; the date of the paper 

 in which the notice first appeared was not mentioned in the North- 

 ern Whig, but it may fairly be presumed to have been early in 

 September. One of these birds, which was procured at the begin- 



* A hoopoe flew on board the Shannon steam-packet when on the passage 

 from London to Dublin in September 1834, and on the arrival of the vessel 

 at the latter port on the 20th of that month was seen by my informant. 



