Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/478

454 procured in Wexford. It still remains an open question whether albatus is a good species, or, as Dr. Elliott Coues considers it (Key, N. Amer. Birds, p. 282), a variety distinguishable only by its size from the larger Anser hyperboreus. —

— Referring to the Rev. C.W. Benson's note on the occurrence of the Tree Pipit in the County Dublin (p. 348), I may remark that about thirteen years ago, while birdsnesting near Raheny, on the north side of the same county, I found at the base of a furze-bush a nest with eggs which were quite new to me, although I was perfectly familiar with the birds and nests of that county. The bird in question on being disturbed perched in a hawthorn about forty yards off, near enough for me to see a pale yellowish breast which I did not recognise, and to bear a loud note which 1 had never heard before. The eggs were much redder than any I had seen, and on taking them home and comparing them with the figure of the Tree Pipit's egg in Laishley's ' British Birds' Eggs,' I made sure that they belonged to that species. A description of the bird afterwards left me no doubt on the subject. I preserved the eggs as amongst my rarest for a long time, and I believe I have one still in a cabinet in Dublin. — (Glenalla, Ray, Letterkenny).

— During the second week in October, a Spotted Crake was killed at Leiston on a large piece of reed-land. A nest of this species was found at the same place in May, 1872, with the old bird just hatching. Since then (Sept. 18, 1873) an adult bird was shot there, but was too much mutilated to be worth preserving. Ou visiting Eastou Broad the other day (Oct. 18) we found the surface dotted all over with wildfowl, by far the greater part consisting of Coots. There were besides several flocks of ducks (A. boschas), and a good mauy either Scaups or Pochards; but the day being very thick, we could not with certainty determine to which species they belonged. I have met with the Dartford Warbler several times lately among high furze-bushes on the heath between here and Iken.— (Blaxhall, Suffolk).

— Apropos of the instance noticed by Mr. Kerry (p. 437), it may be remarked that the circumstance, although curious enough, is not unprecedented. The late Bishop Stauley, in his ' Familiar History of Birds,' mentions (p. 285) a ben in the possession of a clergyman which so far overcame her natural fear of water as to be in the constant habit of making a short cut from the churchyard (into which she with the rest of the poultry occasionally wandered) to the barn-yard, by regularly swimming across a pool, which was situated between it and the churchyard. The distance was almost thirty yards, and the part of the pool where she crossed was so near the end of it that the other fowls which came round arrived before her. —