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



It was considered desirable to look as critically as possible to these 

 birds on account of the singular fact of their appearance in this he- 

 misphere. Ornithologists can hardly believe that they crossed the 

 Atlantic. Temminck conjectures that this cuckoo must breed in the 

 north of Europe, whence the individuals migrated to the British 

 Islands. But our knowledge of their occurrence here only, and in 

 the more western parts (Ireland, Wales, and Cornwall), in addition 

 to the fact, that at the very period of their being met with the 

 species is (as we learn from Wilson and Audubon) in course of mi- 

 gration in the western hemisphere, seems to me presumptive evidence 

 of their having really crossed the ocean. So far north as Labrador, 

 Audubon has seen this bird in summer. 



Roller^ Coracias garrula, Linn. — See e Annals/ vol. vii. 

 p. 478. 



The Bee-Eater, Merops Apiaster, Linn., has very rarely- 

 been met with in Ireland. 



Dr. J. D. Marshall of Belfast, in a communication to the 'Magazine 

 of Natural History' (vol. ii.) dated July 1829, stated that one 14 was 

 killed in the county of Wicklow a few years ago." Dr. R. Graves 

 of Dublin, in a letter addressed to a mutual friend in Belfast, men- 

 tioned in November 1830, that he had known three bee-eaters to 

 have been obtained in the interior of Ireland, one of which was shot 

 b^ Mr. Tardy, an eminent entomologist in the metropolis, who on 

 opening the stomach found it to contain many bees. It is doubtless 

 the same individual that is alluded to by Mr. Vigors in the ' Zoologi- 

 cal Journal' (No. 4. p. 589) as being in the possession of the last- 

 named gentleman ; but in this communication it is stated to have been 

 shot "on the sea-coast, near Wexford, in the winter of 1820 "(?) 

 In March 1833 I saw one of the specimens alluded to by Dr. Graves, 

 in his own collection. 



As noticed in the ' Magazine of Natural History ' (vol. ii. p. 18, new 

 series), I had the opportunity of examining in a recent state, the only 

 one of these birds yet recorded as obtained in Scotland. It was stated 

 to have been shot on the 6th of October, 1832, by Capt. James 

 McDowall, 2nd Life Guards, at his seat near the Mull of Galloway ; 

 and it was sent to Belfast by my friend Capt. Fayrer, R.N., to be 

 preserved, and set up for that gentleman. 



I have had the gratification of seeing the bee-eater in scenes with 

 which its brilliant plumage was more in harmony than in the British 

 Isles. It first excited my admiration in August 1826, when visit- 

 ing the celebrated grotto of Egeria, near Rome. On approaching 

 this classic spot, several of these birds, in rapid swift-like flight, swept 

 closely past and around us, uttering their peculiar call, and with 

 their graceful form and brilliant colours proved irresistibly attractive. 

 My companion, who as well as myself beheld them for the first time, 

 was so greatly struck with the beauty of their plumage and bold 

 sweeping flight, as to term them the presiding deities over Egeria's 

 Grotto. Rich as the spot was in historical and poetical associations, 

 it was not less so for its pictorial charms — all was in admirable keep- 



