Colour of irides very dark-brown; pupil dark bluish-black; upper mandible dusky, except from nostrils to base, where it is of a dull leaden-blue; lower mandible of a similar colour except the tip, which is dusky. Base ("plante") of feet and back of legs black, of which colour also are the webs on the upper side; tarsi and toes of a pale bluish lead-colour, which also prevails in a longitudinal line on each side of the toes, thus giving the feet a very handsome appearance, resembling that of the gannet. Tail-feathers fourteen in number. On dissection it was found to be a female.

With the exception of two pebbles and five or six of the Rissoa labiosa, the stomach was entirely filled with full-grown specimens of Lacuna quadrifasciata, of which many were perfect.

November 12, 1838.-H. Bell, who killed the individual just noticed, saw another similar one in the bay, when out in his boat looking for wild-fowl. It allowed him to approach so near that with his oar he pushed it under water, where, becoming entangled in a mass of sea-weeds, the bird was captured; he could not perceive that it was in any way wounded. The wings being fixed so as to prevent its escape, the duck was laid in the bottom of the boat, where he was quite captivated by its tameness, evinced (to use his own expression) "by its going swattering with its bill into the little water that lay in the bottom of the boat." He regretted the want of bread to give it, believing that the bird would have eaten from his hand. So pleased was he with his captive, that he set it at liberty lest it should be injured by any one;—a great stretch for a man who earns his livelihood by wildfowl shooting. He would have taken it to the taxidermist, whom he supplied with all rarities, but was afraid the latter would kill it. The next day he was grieved to find the poor bird, not far from the place of its liberation, lying dead, with its eyes picked out, and the body partly eaten, no doubt by some of the larger species of gull.

November 6, 1839.-A long-tailed duck, which was alone, was

shot near the Long Strand. It is an adult female, and agrees with Jenyns' description of that sex. The bill and legs are coloured as in the specimen of December 1837. Its stomach was about half filled with gravel and fragments of Mytili and Rissoa. October 31, 1840. Two of these birds were seen in company, to-day, off Adam's Point, one of which was killed and the other winged. They were remarked to be extremely expert at diving,—as much so as the golden-eye. The former was an immature male; its stomach contained different species of Rissoa, small specimens of Cerithium reticulatum, and fragments of stone. November 13, 1843. Two long-tailed ducks were shot in the bay in company with golden-eye ducks, the first time they have been observed here associated with any other species. On the 18th of this month one was obtained at Adam's Point, in a different (younger?) state of plumage from any I had previously seen, and which proved on dissection to be a female. The stomach was filled with small crustacea (Gammarida) and testaceous mollusca ;-three of Nucula margaritacea and several of Rissoa ulva. December 21, 1844. Two of these birds, which admitted of a close approach, were seen in the bay, at this date, and likewise for some days before, by Richard Flack. Just after having fired at godwits he pushed his boat over the spot where they had been, they having dived rather than take wing when the fowler thus came to close quarters with them. Neither was an adult male; but a third one, seen with them, though not satisfactorily, from its always flying off when nearly approached, was, from that reason, believed to be an old bird. It always returned to the others when the alarm was over. October 21, 1847. A young male was shot near Ballymacarrett, and only the one seen. Its stomach contained Rissoa ulve and the remains of shrimps (Crangon vulgaris). December 27, 1848. A beautiful specimen of the adult male was shot in the bay. Coming under my inspection when quite recent, I noted it as fully agreeing with Yarrell's description of the bird in this plumage, except in the following characters :

Bill the nail, and half of the side of the upper mandible next its base, black,

while the whole upper surface and anterior part of the side were of a deep rosecolour. Irides very light yellowish-hazel. Cheeks and ear-coverts pale greyishdrab, except a small space of pure white margining the eye. Forehead pale grey, which colour also extends round the throat, and continues downward so as to margin the entire inner or lower side of the dark chestnut-brown patch on each side of the neck. Central line of lower part of throat, between the two approximating edges of the chestnut patch, white. Top of head very pale buff. Back and lower part of neck all round pure white, which colour extends down between the "shoulders." Scapulars and sides beneath the wings, or "flanks," pale slate-colour. Entire breast dark chestnut-brown, of the same hue as the patch on the head. Belly and under tail-coverts, white. Tail-feathers: two outer pair pure white; the three next, with a dark longitudinal line near the centre, becoming gradually broader in those approximating the middle of the tail. The second longest pair all black, except a narrow line of white on each side of their basal portion. The longest pair wholly black. Tarsi and toes very pale lead-colour; webs greyish-black; nails blackish.

Length, from point of bill to end of longest tail-feathers.

Its stomach contained only a Rissoa ulva. This specimen came into the possession of Capt. Bradshaw, R.N., of Holywood; I purchased all the others.

Most of the preceding birds appeared in the estuary within a mile of the town, and all of them within three miles of it. I have never known them to be driven here by severity of weather, under the influence of which alone they are said to visit the coast of Sussex.* October, November, and December, have hitherto been the months of their visits, and they have chiefly been immature. The statement of Wilson and Audubon, (when writing of this bird as a North American one,) that the species lives chiefly on shell-fish, has been corroborated by an examination of the food in the individuals just noticed, in which both univalve and bivalve forms were found. The latter author (vol. iv. p. 103) gives

Knox.

an interesting account of a whole nursery of young birds that came under his observation.

In March 1834, I was informed by Mr. Glennon, of Dublin, that he had at one time received two fresh specimens of the longtailed duck from Wexford; and subsequently, a sportsman resident in that town mentioned to me that he had known this bird, as well as the pintail, to have been killed in the harbour there. In Saunders's Newsletter of February 13th, 1835, it was said that Sir Hussey Vivian, on a late sporting excursion on the estate of Sir Robert Gore Booth, in the west of Ireland, had shot the Anas glacialis-which was correct:-the specimen was seen by some of my ornithological friends. Mr. H. H. Dombrain informed me that a fine male bird, sent to him in December 1836, was caught at Lurgan Green (county of Louth) when asleep, by a little girl, who stated that there were two of them, and that she chose the prettier one with the long tail-the other had been a female or young male. The same gentleman announced a female bird as having been shot at Malahide, on the Dublin coast, at the end of November 1840, in company with a gadwall. Another was killed there in the early part of the winter of 1843.* I have seen one which was stated to have been found dead on the beach of Dublin bay on the 27th of October, 1846, where, in the winter of 1847-48 and in December 1848, single individuals were also obtained;† the last was a female;-the three were immature. At the end of February in the last-named year, a fresh specimen of an adult bird was purchased in Dublin.

An old male from the Galway coast, said to have been killed in the month of August, has come under my notice. Three of these ducks were killed in Drogheda Bay in the winter of 184849, and in the month of March of the latter year an adult male was seen there by Mr. R. J. Montgomery, and twice fired at by

+ Mr. R. J. Montgomery.

* Rev. Geo. Robinson. In the collection of Mr. J. Watters, jun., Dublin. I am informed by the Rev. G. Robinson that an immature bird was shot so early as in the month of August (1841) in Plymouth Sound, by John Getcombe, Esq. The species is very rare there at all times.

him, but unsuccessfully. This species, according to Mr. R. Chute, is an occasional winter visitant to the coast of Kerry; an "old pair" shot in Dingle Bay is in his collection.

The preceding notes indicate that this beautiful species is rather rare on the coast of Ireland, which it visits in very limited num bers, as it does the coast of England generally, though it is common on a great part of that of Scotland, increasing much in number northwards. Very interesting accounts of its habits there are given in St. John's Wild Sports of the Highlands' (p. 131); and in the Zoologist' (vol. vi. p. 2292) by the Rev. James Smith, as observed by him near Banff. The late Mr. G. Matthews, on his return from Norway, reported these birds to me as plentiful all along the coast, particularly at Bergsfiord, Tromsoe, and at a large island near the latter place, called Dyroe. He once killed ten with one barrel, and three with the second, out of a large flock, and with No. 7 shot; this supply came very opportunely, as his party were at the time "hard up" for food. September and October were the months in which the greatest number of these birds were seen there.

THE HARLEQUIN DUCK, Clangula histrionica, Anas histrionica, Linn. (sp.), not yet met with in Ireland, has, in a few instances, been killed on the coast of Great Britain, at widely different localities, on each side of the island, as the Orkneys and Devonshire,* Norfolk and Cheshire. On the 10th and 11th of July, 1849, a flock, consisting of four adult males, was seen by Captain May on a lake close to the entrance of the Salten Fiord, Norway. He and his party, wishing to obtain them for specimens, went in pursuit, and tried for a long time to get a shot, but in vain, owing to the wildness of the birds. France and Germany are the two most southern countries in Europe, named in Yarrell's work as visited (and very rarely) by this bird. One individual is recorded in De Selys' Fauna of Belgium' (p. 147). It is a northern species of the European and American continents.

According to Dr. R. Battersby, of Torquay, a small flock frequented the bay there during the winter of 1846-47, from which he procured a male and female.'Zoologist,' vol. v. p. 1697. A few odd birds had previously been obtained on the southern coast of Devonshire (Yarr.)