I9i6. 
Robert Warren. 
39 
comparing various phases of plumage, he felt as deep an 
interest as any nature -lover in the preservation of seriously 
threatened bird-life — as in the case of the Red-throated 
Diver in its Donegal breeding home. He warmly disputed 
the charge brought against Irish naturalists and sportsmen 
by an English ornithologist of having helped on the extermi- 
nation of the Osprey in Scotland by shooting the birds 
during their migration across Ireland ; and he certainly 
succeeded in showing that the charge had been made on 
very slender foundation. 
The National Museum is indebted to his vigilance in the 
field for many interesting birds, the best being probably the 
two Surf Scoters shot in the winter of 1896-7, the Pied 
Flycatcher, and a Black Tern shot on the Moy in 1859. 
The White Wagtail shot on Bartragh in 1893 also merits 
notice as the second example obtained in Ireland. Among 
the rest, as Mr. Nichols kindly informs me, are an immature 
male Eider Duck, a male and female Gadwall, an Iceland 
Gull in second year's plumage, and a Glaucous Gull, Fulmar 
Petrel, and Little Auk. He was also largely instrumental 
in securing for the Museum the specimen of the Hump- 
backed Whale {Megaptera hoops), which hangs from 
the roof of the Upper Room directly under the Common 
Rorqual, and which forms the subject of an article 
contributed by him to this journal (vol. ii., p. 119), in 
1893. Next to birds, the whales and seals were the animals 
that seemed to interest him most, and when visiting the 
Museum he used to enjoy conversing about them. To 
the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland, of which he was 
a Corresponding Member, he often sent gifts of living 
birds. Several of his earlier specimens were also given 
to the Museum of Queen's College, Cork. The skins that 
formed his private collection — including some American 
birds sent him for comparison by his cousin and old 
correspondent, A. Taylor — are, I understand, now in the 
possession of his friend Mr. W. Williams. 
Throughout the whole term of his residence in Sligo, he 
cherished the hope of ultimately returning to his native 
county ; and in 1909, having completed his eightieth year, 
