274 
SCOLOPACID*®. 
the generality of snipes^ and at first, in consequence of its dark 
colour, I took it for a water-rail. Being rather too anxious, I 
fired three times before killing it : after each of the first two shots 
it pitched quite near again like the jack-snipe.’’^ * About March 
the 13th, 1838 (as communicated by me to the fifth volume of 
the ^Annals of Natural History’) one of these rare birds was shot 
near Kinnegad, Westmeath, where it had been seen for three years, 
and occasionally fired at. The specimen was sent to Dublin, 
where in the ensuing month of May I saw it in the possession of 
Mr. Glennon, the well-known bird-preserver. Its measurements 
were. 
Inch. Line. 
Length (total) . . . . .11 3 
of bill above .... 2 7 
tarsus 1 3-| 
middle toe and naO ... 1 4 
wing from carpus ... 5 3 
In plumage it was quite similar to the individuals hitherto 
described. Mr. W. S. Wall, a Dublin bird-preserver, who saw 
this specimen, assured me that about nine years previously (then 
1838), a similar bird shot in this country was, on account of its 
remarkable appearance, sent to liim (in a fresh state) by the Eev. 
Sir Harcourt Lees, Bart., under the name of black snipe.’’’ 
When set up,” it was presented by that baronet to the museum 
of the Koyal DubHn Society, but within a few years was attacked 
by moths and destroyed. With reference to the species of the 
bird in question, 1 have full reliance on the accuracy of my infor- 
mant. 
The occurrence of a fifth specimen was made known to me by 
Thomas W. Warren, Esq., of Dublin, who on the 1st of Eebruary, 
1844, mentioned his having that day seen (at Mr. Glennon’s) a 
female bird which was recently shot (by Aquilla Dancer, Esq.) 
* I took advantage of tbe bird being in London to exbibit it at a meeting of tbe 
Zoological Society, and read tbe above letter, wbicb was printed in tbe ‘ Proceedings’ 
for 1835 (p. 82). Mr. Yarrell having previously seen this S. Sahini when in tbe 
bird-preserver’s bands, noticed it merely as “ a third specimen ” (it was tbe second 
Irish one) in the ‘Magazine of Natural History’ for 1830 (vol. iii. p. 29). 
