of Clare. Its presence is generally announced to us by its chatter at some distance excited by our approach; but, restless as a blackbird, the ring-ouzel flits from rock to rock, often leaving the eye wandering long ere it can fix upon the sought-for object. It breeds about the mountains of Dublin and Wicklow,* and is stated to appear there in flocks in spring and autumn;† at the latter season, to eat the berries of the mountain ash (Pyrus aucuparia). It is said to frequent the hills about Portumna, on the western border of Galway; and Mr. M'Calla, states that a few breed in the least frequented parts of the mountains of Connemara, where he has often searched in vain for their nests, though satisfied that they were near :-on leaving their supposed vicinity the old birds followed him to a considerable distance, uttering their mournful notes. They are plentiful in the autumn evidently from migration, although never seen in flocks in spring, and are called round-berry birds in that district, from the circumstance of their feeding on the berries of the rowan or mountain ash. Ring-ouzels frequent the mountain tops-Slievna-mon, &c.,-about Clonmel (Tipperary), where the country people call them cow-boys,‡ and a few have been met with in summer among the Comeragh mountains, county of Waterford.§ This species is mentioned in the Fauna of Cork as a summer visitant to the mountainous districts; and is common at that season in the most rocky parts of the mountains of Kerry, within a few miles of the sea-coast, in the same haunts with choughs and eagles.|| More than a family of these birds together have not come under my own observation in the north-east of this island, but they have been reported to me as once seen in considerable numbers in autumn on Sleive Donard, and the bleak mountain above Sea-Forde * Mr. R. Ball. In White's "Natural History of Selborne," this species is mentioned as merely visiting that locality in spring and autumn, when on its way to the north and south. According to his observation during three springs and two autumns, it is most punctual in its appearance. It has been noticed as visiting Devonshire and Cornwall in a similar manner. Mr. Davis. § Mr. Poole. || Mr. T. F. Neligan. in Down. Ring-ouzels appeared in numbers like fieldfares and redwings among the Mounterlowney mountains, Tyrone, to sporting friends, grouse-shooting there in the last week of August, in the years 1817 and 1818. Their resort was to some rowantrees near a shieling at the extremity of a glen, where six or seven have been killed at a shot as they were feeding on the berries. They were the most common birds in that wild locality, and suffered much in consequence, being in daily requisition as food for trained peregrine falcons. * I have rarely been in the haunts of the ring-ouzel about the time of its arrival or departure. The earliest date at which it happened to come under my notice about Belfast, was the 17th of April, and the latest the middle of October: in a bird killed at the latter period, I found a quantity of the larvæ of insects of several kinds. This species has occasionally been met with in Ireland during winter. About Aberarder, Inverness-shire, an observant friend met with ring-ouzels in small flocks from the 10th of August to the 26th f September, 1838, on which latter day not less than twenty were seen: he considers them to feed chiefly on the "heath-berries" (which were observed in their mutings) and berries of the juniper. In other years they were stated to be common until the period of his departure from that district in the middle of October. When there myself during September, 1842, these birds were occasionally seen among junipers, of which there is quite a tract in Glen Marson,—and rowan-trees, both laden with berries. The greatest number were seen on the 26th of that month, on which day a few came under my own observation. One of my friends, whose beat was in another and wilder district, reported them to be in con * An ornithological friend under whose notice this species first came on the 30th of April, 1848, when he saw four in company at one of the ravines of the Black Mountain here, remarked, that he should have passed them by as blackbirds, but for perceiving them to alight on the tops of whins and other plants :-a good observation as their alighting on the tops of rocks, stones, plants, &c., is a striking characteristic. On the 7th of April, 1846, several were seen by Lord Roden's gamekeeper on the mountains above Tollymore Park. siderable numbers ;-flying out of the rowan-trees in flocks. The remark of Sir Wm. Jardine that this species "is no where abundant, and is generally seen in pairs about some solitary glen or ravine, or by some shelving cliff," (B. B. vol. ii. p. 99.) would appear to be only referable in Scotland to certain districts, or to the breeding season. M. Duval-Jouve informs us that :-"The ring-ouzel is always seen (in Provence) early in the spring. It has been observed towards the end of February; on one occasion it was seen as late as the 15th of April. The cold of November brings it back to us regularly. None remain with us during winter, not even on the shores of the Mediterranean, or in the neighbouring islands; so that among all the birds of this tribe, which are sent from Corsica every winter to Toulon and Marseilles, by thousands, we do not find one ring-ouzel before the end of February." Zoologist for Oct., 1845, p. 1119. Has once been killed in Ireland. By the kindness of Dr. Burkitt of Waterford, who possesses a collection of native birds, (or species killed in Ireland,) I exhibited an individual of this African thrush to the Natural History section of the British Association, held at Cork in 1843. It was purchased by that gentleman from a country-lad who brought it into Waterford in January, 1838, with a number of blackbirds (Turdus merula) and snipes, and who believed it to be a hen blackbird he shot it at Mount Beresford, three miles and a half from Waterford. There can therefore be no doubt of the specimen having been killed in this country. vidual known to have occurred in Europe. : It is the only indi- the species in his Birds of Africa, vol. iii. p. 46. pl. 107 (Paris 1802), under the name of Le Cudor, stating that it was discovered on the banks of the Groot-vis, a river of the Caffre country: little more is yet known respecting it. A figure, taken from the specimen here noticed, has appeared in the 2nd edition of Yarrell's British Birds, and in the Supplementary part to the 1st edition of the same work. Mr. R. Ball of Dublin informed me in October, 1845, that three birds of a very nearly allied species, brought from Palestine -and called Palestine Nightingales-had been obtained for the aviary of the Zoological Garden, Phoenix Park. They were more of a slate-colour than the species under consideration. GOLDEN ORIOLE. Oriolus galbula, Linn. This beautiful species-unlike a native of our clime—is but an occasional summer visitant. A bird described to Mr. R. Ball to have been the size of a thrush, and in colour, bright-yellow and black, frequented a garden between Middleton and Castlemartyr (county of Cork),* for some months in the summer of 1817 (?): he had no doubt of its having been a golden oriole. In the 1st volume of the Zoological Journal (p. 590), one of these birds stated to have been shot in the county of Wexford, in May, 1823, is said to be preserved in the Museum of the Royal Dublin Society. In the Fauna of Cork (1845), we are told that " one was sent to the Institution in 1823 by Lord Bantry:" this is, I presume, the same individual that Mr. Richard Dowden told me in 1838, had been sent some years before that period to the Institution alluded to. It came under his notice in a fresh state; and had been shot at Lord Bantry's seat, near the town of Bantry, in the county of Cork. On the 11th of May, 1824, a female of this species was shot by a gentleman of my acquaintance near Donaghadee, in the county * This is the specimen alluded to in the Fauna of Cork as from Castlemartyr. of Down, and sent to Mr. John Montgomery of Belfast, who added it to his collection: a male bird was soon afterwards seen about the same place.* Dr. Burkitt of Waterford mentions a golden oriole as having been shot at Ballinamona, two miles from that city, in 1824 or 1825. I have been credibly informed that one was procured near Arklow, county of Wicklow, in the summer of 1827 (?). In a letter from Dr. Robert Graves of Dublin to a mutual friend in Belfast, dated November, 1830, it is mentioned, that a male golden oriole was shot in the preceding summer in a valley above one of the bays of Kerry. In January 1838, I was informed of one having been shot near Gorey, county of Wexford, about a year before that time-probably in the summer of 1837; as in that year a male bird, accompanied by a female which escaped, was shot on a cherry tree in a garden at Ballintore near Ferns :† it has not been positively stated whether more than the same individual be included in these two records. In Dr. Burkitt's collection there is a male bird which was procured in June, 1838, near Woodstown, county of Waterford. In the same year (?) one was for some time a visitant at Cahirmore, near Roxborough, co. Cork.‡ Mr. Yarrell mentions two individuals as obtained in England in the month of April, 1824, in which year one or two were procured in Ireland. The other years of their occurrence in England mentioned by this author-1811, 1829, 1833-are different from those in which they were met with in Ireland. The species is about equally rare in England and in this island. In Scotland,— according to Macgillivray, B. B. vol. ii. p. 76. (1839),—there is no authentic record of its occurrence. The birds mentioned by Mr. Selby as in the Museum of the University, Edinburgh, and said to have been killed on the Pentland Hills, are known to Mr. Macgillivray to have been brought from France. In the summer and autumn of 1826, I met with the golden oriole near Rotterdam, in Holland; in the finely wooded valley * These are the individuals alluded to by Mr. Templeton in Charlesworth's Magazine of Natural History, vol. i. p. 405. |