484 
A BIBLIOGBAPHY OF 
[ralfe 
1909. On the tail-feathers of the Dabcbick. (Ibis, pp. 469-71.) 
On the Pterylosis of the Black- throated Diver. (Brit. Birds, iii. 
pp. 93-8.) 
1911. On the Plumage of the Nestling Barn-Owl. (Op. cit. iv. pp. 322-5.) 
“ Quiggins’s Guide to the Isle of Man .” See Forbes 
(Edward) 
Balfe (Pilcher George), not. 1861 
Mr. Balfe, M.B.O.U., of Castletown, Isle of Man, was 
born at Ellanbane, near Bamsey, I.M., on January 19, 1861, 
and educated at Bamsey Grammar School. In 1880 he 
entered the employment of the Isle of Man Bank, becoming 
its agent at Laxey in 1895, and in 1897 agent at Castletown, 
a post he still holds ; consequently his home has always been 
on the Island. 
From very early years, he writes us, he was interested in 
various branches of natural history, but it was not until 
about 1890 that he took up the study of Manx ornithology 
with any seriousness, observing how little, to judge from 
standard works, appeared to be known of it. He is practically 
a one-book man, his Birds of the Isle of Man being his only 
work, apart from various papers and a pamphlet, but that 
undertaking is marked by much careful work and compares 
very favourably with the avifaunas of much larger and more 
important areas. The principal assistance he has had has 
been from Mr. F. S. Graves, of Alderley Edge (who collabor- 
ated with him in the writing of many of the undernoted 
papers), and to whom he is indebted for “ the numerous 
notes contributed by him from his long and intimate know- 
ledge of the bird life of his native island, and especially of the 
Peel district, and also for permission to reproduce photographs 
of many of the scenes described.” 
The lists of Mr. P. M. C. Kerinode (in Isle of Man Nat . 
Hist, and Antiq. Soc. Trans, and Mag.) are also stated to 
have supplied a groundwork for the book. 
