Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/357

Rh another (also an adult bird) about the sands and river. At length, on the 23rd of the same month, I shot it near Ballysokeery. It was a fine bird, with some of the dusky colour of the winter plumage about the head and neck. I shot an immature bird in the winter of either 1874 or 1875—I am not certain which, as I did not note it at the time. Again, during the past winter, I several times observed a Glaucous Gull on the river and estuary; and as I was passing the Moyne channel in my punt, on the 28th March last, it flew close by me, and I could not resist the temptation of bringing it down. It proved to be a beautiful adult bird, and the only trace of either winter or immature colours was the angle of the bill being horn-colour.

Pomarine Skua, Lestris pomarinus.—On October 22nd, 1862, I saw several flocks passing to the southward on their autumnal migration, and obtained two birds. Both were nearly adult. As I have already given a detailed account of the occurrence of this and the following species in my notes of the autumnal migration of these two Skuas in 'The Zoologist' for November, 1875, it will be unnecessary to repeat my observations here.

Richardson's Skua, Lestris Richardsonii.—Also seen on their autumnal migration, and specimens obtained at various times.

Long-tailed Skua, Lestris Buffonii.—Has only twice come under my notice. In the first instance, on October 24th, 1862, I fired at a small Skua near Scurmore, but, although badly hit, it got away over the sand-hills. The next day, when walking on the Enniscrone sands, I found a dead Skua, which I brought home, and on skinning it I found gun-shot wounds, which proved it to have been the bird I had wounded the day before. On October 10th, 1867, Mr. N. Handy, of Ballintubber, near Killala, gave me a bird of this species that he had shot on his grouse mountain as it rose from the carcase of a dead horse upon which he said it was feeding. This specimen was nearly adult, but unfortunately had been kept too long, and was unfit for preservation.

Fulmar Petrel, Procellaria glacialis.—This bird (so rare on the Irish coast that Thompson mentions only three specimens as having come under his notice) has on several occasions in winter been found on the Enniscrone sands, thrown up by the surf, and occasionally on the sands of other parts of the bay which open to the north. Except in one instance, the birds were dead but quite fresh. On the 24th January, 1857, I found a young Fulmar—I