78 



The Irish Naturalist. 



August, 



The Quail in Co. Antrim. 



For many years past the Quail, for some reason or other, has been 

 extremely rare in this part of Ireland, indeed for several years it was 

 looked upon as extinct in the district. As authenticated records of its 

 reappearance are, therefore, of interest to Irish ornithologists, I venture 

 to record a recent experience. On the 30th May of the present year it 

 was my good fortune to hear the bird at close quarters call for a con- 

 siderable time, in a rough, rushy, pasture field near Tully, in the parish 

 of Killead, Co. Antrim, and situated about three miles from the eastern 

 shore of Lough Neagh. The place is known locally as the " Black Bogs," 

 and on the day in question was largely tenanted by the Curlew, Lapwing, 

 Snipe, Reed Bunting and ]Meadow Pipit. Amid the disturbed calls of 

 Curlew and Lapwing, the call of the Quail at some little distance was 

 easily recognised. I may say that 1 had not heard the bird since I was a 

 boy, in the early eighties. A local farmer friend who was with me, wlien I 

 drew his attention to the call, and asked him what the bird was, at once 

 confirmed my identification by exclaiming " the Wet-my-foot," and adding 

 that he, too, had not heard it before for over thirty years. 



Belfast. W. J. C. Tomlinson. 



Remains of Little Gull at Slyne Head Light-Station. 



On Tuesday, February jth, 1919, through the kindness of Mr. Frank 

 Hawkins, lightkeeper, I received the left foot and left wing of a Little 

 Gull {Larus miniitus), which he picked up " a few days " after I left the 

 Slyne Head light-station in the previous autumn. As the date of my 

 departure that year was October ist, 191 vS, I surmise that the bird was 

 found about October 4th. The finder writes that the remains, when picked 

 up, were perfectly fresh ; that there were many feathers at the spot ; and 

 that there were some other fragments, mainly of bones, together with 

 portion of the head, with feathers and beak intact. The " find " quite 

 evidently represented what remained after a Peregrine had made a meal 

 (possibly a Merlin may have captured the gull in question, but the quarry 

 was rather large to make this a likely hypothesis). Both of these falcons 

 are frequent visitors, in quest of quarry, to Slyne Head, but neither breec's 

 there, the topography of the island and those adjacent being unsuitable 

 for this purpose. However, during my spring and autumn visits to this 

 station I have personally seen these two falcons on several occasions in 

 pursuit of their prey. Not only were enough of the remams of the victim 

 sent to me to prove the identification of th(^ species, but also to enable me 

 to pronounce that it was in immature plumage. This Little Gull was 

 probably captured at or in the immediate vicinity of Slyne Head, because, 

 unless disturbed, falcons do not usually transport their prey through the 

 air to a spot removed from the seat of capture. The Little Gull is a rare 

 visitor to Ireland on migration, occurring chiefly in autumn and winter. 



University, She Hi eld. 



C. J. PATTliN. 



