I920. 



Notes. 



59 



ZOOLOGY. 

 An Irish Cretaceous Cirripede. 



Work on fossil cirripedes is comparatively rare, though the study 

 is honourably associated with Charles Darwin's early days. Mr. T. H. 

 Withers, of the British Museum (Natural History), has examined {Ann. 

 Mag. Nat. Hist. (9) vol. v., p. 70, 1920) a fine specimen from the Chalk 

 of Antrim, which was described by Wyville Thomson in 1858 under the 

 name Loricula Macadawi. This description has long been overlooked, 

 and Mr. Deane, Curator of the Belfast Public Art Gallery and Museum, 

 has discovered the specimen in the collections under his care and has 

 kindly lent it for investigation. Mr. Withers finds that it is identical 

 with L. pulchella of G. B. Sowerby, jun. The name Loricula being pre- 

 occupied, it now becomes Strmnentum pidchellum. This excellent specimen, 

 probably the only one known in Ireland, is photographed, and described 

 in detail by Mr. Withers in a succeeding paper [ibtd., p. 264, plate xiii). 



G. A. J. Cole. 



Royal College of Science, Dublin. 



A Brambling" Season. 



It seems clear the autumn of 1919 was a " Brambling year " ; see 

 Mr. Abbot's note supra p. 27, and British Birds, vol. xiii., pp. ig\, 

 221, 276. An occasional Brambling is rare here, very rare I may sa}', 

 but from i6th November last for a couple of weeks over half a dozen 

 Bramblings were on a road which I pass every day, with Chaffinches. 

 Tiiere was only a thin row of less than a dozen small beech trees, and 

 their food was evidently not quite confined to beech-mast, as they fed 

 also some distance from the trees. 



J. P. BURKITT. 



Enniskillen. 



Sora Rail at Slyne Head, Co. Galway, a Bird New to 



Ireland. 



At 3 a.m. on Sunday, April nth, a Sora Rail {Porzana Carolina, also 

 known as the Carolina Rail or Crake), struck the lantern of Slyne Head 

 lighthouse, and fell lifeless at the foot of the tower. Being on the spot 

 at the time I was enabled to collect it at once and make investigations on 

 the body, measurements, etc., while the specimen was in a perfectly fresh 

 condition. It made a most excellent skin, the nuptial plumage which it had 

 assumed, being at its highest pitch of beauty. Examination of the genitals 

 showed that the sex was male, and that tlie bird had fully reached 

 maturity. I purpose publishing more particulars with illustrations a 

 little later on. This is a new bird for the Irish List. 



C. J. Patten. 



University, Sheffield. 



