138 
The Irish Naturalist. 
June, 
in bad weather. In spring it migrates northward, or to more 
mountainous districts, to breed, and is said to nest on or near 
the ground — being a semi-terrestrial Finch. 
When Mr. Watson sent the bird, he said it was a " very rare " 
one ; and without telling the name, I enquired why he so de- 
scribed the specimen. He replied : — 
I surmised that the bird I sent you was very rare, as I do 
not remember seeing one like it before. Please name it for 
me. I first saw it at 8 a.m., and it was then in a cow-house, 
and flew out when disturbed. At 9 a.m. it was perched on an 
out-house, and when I tried to approach, it flew away when I 
was forty yards distant. About an hour afterwards it was 
perched on a wall, and I got within twenty yards of it and saw 
clearly it was an uncommon bird. It then flew to a field, and 
I shot it when rising." 
I once was sent "a very rare bird" from an island on the 
north coast of Ireland, and the lightkeeper alleged that 
neither he nor any one of the islanders had ever seen " the 
like of it " before — it was a common Rock-pipit ! From 
another station a " Woodcock" was once forwarded — it was a 
common Song-thrush ! It is only fair to say, however, that 
Irish lightkeepers rarely make such bad blunders — and one 
wonderful identification was made by Mr. James at the 
Tearaght, Co. Kerry, in 1890, when he recognised that tiny 
Asiatic wanderer, the Yellow-browed Warbler {Phylloscopus 
superciliosus) for the first time in Ireland. 
But, to return to Ju7ico, It may have received an assisted 
passage, but if so, how is the almost annual appearance of the 
Greenland Redpoll, Linota (Acanthis) rostrata on the west 
coast of Ireland to be explained ? Has it been assisted ? I 
am inclined to suspect that the White Wagtail and Water- 
rail cross the North Atlantic to Iceland annually ; the former 
passing up our west coast every year about the first week in 
May, and the latter bird (which one can hardly make fly 
thirty yards over land) — striking our north-west coast lanterns 
in the autumn, probably on the return journey. Are these 
assisted also ? I, for one, am very doubtful. 
Fassaroe, Bray. 
