96 



The Irish Naturalist, 



April, 1905' 



Whooper Swan at Lough Neagh. 



While walking aloug the shore of Lough Neagh, between the ruouths 

 of the Glenavy and Cruuilin rivers, in February last, I found on the shore 

 the body of a young swan. There were signs of ash grey on the back, 

 the bill was edged and tipped with black, and showed signs of changing 

 from a flesh pink, of which there was a lot remaining. The measure- 

 ments agreed with those of the Whooper {Cygmis vmsicus) in all but the 

 length. . This made me refer the matter to Mr. Patterson and Mr. 

 Foster ; the former wished to see the head, the latter the sternum, both 

 of which I duly sent. They both agreed it was undoubtedly the 

 Whooper. The Whooper is much larger than the commoner Bewick's 

 Swan {C. Bewicki), The peculiarity of the sternum and trachea of the 

 Whooper and Bewick's Swans I copy from Newton's Dictionary of 

 Birds. "The sternum is penetrated by the trachea nearly to the 

 posterior end of the keel, hence it turns forward and upward again to 

 revert and enter the lungs ; but in the larger of these species (i.e. 

 Whooper) when adult, the loop of the trachea between the walls of the 

 keel takes a vertical direction, while in the smaller the bend is 

 horizontal, thus affording an easy mode of recognising the respective 

 species of each.'' 



B. Iv. Iv. M'Cl.INTOCK. 



Glendaragh, Crumlin. 



Unnecessary Bird Killing. 



Thfe shooting of a Glaucous Gull {Ii-ish Naimalist, 1905, page 71), is to 

 be strongly deprecated by all true naturalists, this species being well 

 known as an occasional visitor to our coasts. Sixty-five cases of its 

 occurrence in Ireland have been recorded, of which no fewer than 

 twenty-three are assigned to the Counties of Mayo and Sligo (" Birds of 

 Ireland," Ussher and Warren). Mr. Warren can scarcely plead that he 

 required this bird as a specimen, for writing in 1892 {Irish Naturalist, 

 vol. i., p. 154), he says, that up till 1880, he had wounded one and killed 

 five birds of this species. And he admits that he recognised this bird 

 before shooting it as either a Glaucous or an Iceland Gull. 



Ne:vin h. Foster. 



Hillsborough, Co. Down. 



Little Auks off Co. Donegal. 



On February 17th I saw from the steamer "Sicilian" three Little 

 Auks, Mergulus alle^ three miles N.B. of Innistrahull. They allowed us 

 to approach them rather closely, when they flapped away in a N.B. 

 direction. It was blowing a moderate westerly gale, and a high sea was 

 running at the time. 



J. Trumbui^i;, 



Malahide. 



