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ANATIDiE. 
him, but unsuccessfully. This species, according to Mr. B. Chute, 
is an occasional winter visitant to the coast of Kerry; an “ old 
pair ” shot in Dingle Bay is in his collection. 
The preceding notes indicate that this beautiful species is rather 
rare on the coast of Ireland, which it visits in very limited num- 
bers, as it does the coast of England generally, though it is com- 
mon on a great part of that of Scotland, increasing much in num- 
ber northwards. Yery interesting accounts of its habits there 
are given in St. JohiTs f Wild Sports of the Highlands 3 (p. 131); 
and in the ‘ Zoologist * (vol. vi. p. 2292) by the Eev. James Smith, 
as observed by him near Banff. The late Mr. G. Matthews, on 
his return from Norway, reported these birds to me as plentiful 
all along the coast, particularly at Bergsfiord, Tromsoe, and at 
a large island near the latter place, called Dyroe. He once killed 
ten with one barrel, and three with the second, out of a large 
flock, and with No. 7 shot; this supply came very opportunely, 
as his party were at the time (l c hard up 33 for food. September 
and October were the months in which the greatest number of 
these birds were seen there. 
The Harlequin Buck, Clangula histrionica , Anas histrionica , Linn, 
(sp.), not yet met with in Ireland, has, in a few instances, been killed 
on the coast of Great Britain, at widely different localities, on each 
side of the island, as the Orkneys and Devonshire,* Norfolk and 
Cheshire. On the 10th and 11th of July, 1849, a flock, consisting of 
four adult males, was seen by Captain May on a lake close to the en- 
trance of the Salten Fiord, Norway. He and his party, wishing to 
obtain them for specimens, went in pursuit, and tried for a long time 
to get a shot, but in vain, owing to the wildness of the birds. France 
and Germany are the two most southern countries in Europe, named 
in Yarrell’s work as visited (and very rarely) by this bird. One in- 
dividual is recorded in De Selys’ ‘ Fauna of Belgium’ (p. 147). It is 
a northern species of the European and American continents. 
* According to Dr. R. Battersby, of Torquay, a small flock frequented the bay 
there during the winter of 1846-47, from which he procured a male and female. — 
‘Zoologist,’ vol. v. p. 1697. A few odd birds had previously been obtained on the 
southern coast of Devonshire (Yarr.) 
