218 
ALCIDvE. 
fore, to find that this bird is not only equally common in the 
south as in the north of Ireland ; but that it nidifies as frequently 
on the rocky coasts of the former as on those of the latter por- 
tion of the island. 
THE LITTLE AUK. 
Kotche. 
Mergulus melanoleucos, Kay. 
Ale a alle y Linn. 
Uria , 3 Temm. 
Can only be recorded positively as an occasional winter 
visitant. 
Its occurrence in Ireland was noticed in a communication which 
I made to the Zoological Society of London (Proceedings Z. S. 
1834, P- 30), after having seen a specimen, which was shot at 
Wexford on the 26th of December, 1831, in the collection of 
Dr. K. Graves of Dublin. I have since learned that the species 
was obtained in that quarter long before the period mentioned. 
According to an entry in an old Donation-book of Trinity College 
Museum (supplied to me by Mr. K. Ball), it appears that the 
Kev. J. Elgee, of Wexford, “ presented a bird, called the little auk 
or little diver (Penn. 233), driven on the coast of Wexford by 
the storms of January 1791.” — The specimen is not now extant, 
but the reference to “ Pennant, 233,” evinces the correct appli- 
cation of the name to this species. In March 1834, I was 
informed by Mr. Glennon, that in the course of his (t practice ” 
as a bird-preserver, two recent examples of the little auk had 
been sent to him, the one killed at Wexford, the other at Baldoyle, 
near Dublin. On the 5th. of December, 1835, one of these birds 
was found dead, but in a perfectly fresh state, at Portmarnock 
strand, some miles from that city. A letter from Mr. T. W. 
Warren, dated October 16, 1841, announced that he saw on that 
day at Glennon's shop three little auks, which were shot by Mr. 
