So 



The Irish Naiiiralisi. 



May, 



close to the water's edge. Their presence aroused the 

 attention of numbers of the islanders. Late on Sunday 

 night, September 14th, I learned that one of the birds 

 had been shot at about 3.15 p.m. and had already been 

 cooked and eaten ! The islander who secured it was indeed 

 welcome to the carcase for culinary purposes, but I much 

 regretted at the moment that he did not afford me the 

 opportunity of taking off the skin, or at least of seeing the bird 

 in the flesh, in order to enable me to establish the identifica- 

 tion of the species beyond doubt. Luckily a thought flashed 

 across my mind, namely : What had become of the head ? 

 Was it also relegated to the pot, thrown to, or purloined by, 

 a cat or dog, or was it still obtainable ? In reply to my 

 message I was glad to learn that it had been cast into a 

 cornfleld, and that a hunt would be made for it in the 

 morning. At 6.20 p.m., September 15th, an islander 

 brought it to me remarking apologetically that he did not 

 think that a plain -coloured and ugly -shaped duck would 

 be of any use to me, and so he and some friends had a 

 Sunday feast off it ! Sure enough the head was that of an 

 immature Eider-Duck (Somateria fnollissima). But it was 

 not the first recorded from Inishtrahull. Mr. BarringtonJ- 

 has records from a light -keeper here that two were noted 

 as " rare visitors " on February 2nd, 1890, and on November 

 5th, of that year three more were reported from the same 

 station. None of these specimens, however, was received; 

 nor am I aware of any Liishtrahull specimen being 

 examined in the flesh and identified prior to the capture 

 of the specimen mentioned in this paper. 



Status of the Eider-Duck in Ireland. 



The status of this species in Thompson's time - was that 

 of " an extremely rare visitant," and altogether only about 

 four definite records of its occurrence had then been collected, 

 viz. : — One from Co. Wexford, 1834 5 irom Co. Dubhn, 



1 " Migration of Birds," Analysis oj Reports, 1881-1897, P- 261. 



2 " Natural History of Ireland^" vol. iii., 1851, p. 114. 



