Arrival of Summer MigrantsAuthor(s): Robert HunterSource: The Irish Naturalist, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Jun., 1892), p. 61Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25520198 .

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Notes. 6I

others as regards the rest, he might have saved the obliging editor a good deal of his valuable space. We extract the following species, as being among the rarer shells recorded:-Donegal, Lima hans, Lucinopsis undata, Tellina squalida, Psammobia vespertina, Scrobicularia tenuis, Ceratisolen legumen, Solen vagina, Trochus granulatus, Adeorbis subcarinatus, Aplysia punctata. Dub lin, Pecten tsgrinus, Scrobicularia prismatica, Thracia pyracea, Rho/as parva

Barleeia rubra, Homalogyra rota, Cacum trachea, Pleurotoma costata, P. brach.y stoma, P. nebula, Cylichna acuminata, Aplysia punclata. Elsewhere, Pecten septernradiatus (Derry); Pina rudis (Wexford and Down); Diplodoa rotun data tGalwav); Isocardia cor (Waterford and Louthi'l

Odostomih albolla, Loven, IN IRELAND. This little shell, which, so far as I am aware, has not been hitherto recorded in a recent state from Ireland, occurred to me

in. shell-sand lately gathered on the shore at Groomsport, Co. Down-a single example only was obtained. In a fossil state its only Irish record is in a paper which I recently laid before the

Royal Irish Academy, in which it is noted as occurring in estuarine clay at West Bank, Belfast tough. In both instances the species was kindly determined by Mr. J. T. Marshall of Torquay. The same shell-sand yielded-Crenella decussata, Limia su6bauriculata, Maodiolaria discors, Astarteatii angulanr, the four British species of Lacuna, Rissoa reticu/ata, R. cing/llus, Odos/ornia lac/ea, 0. in/erssinca, 0. pallida, and other commoner forms, all of them in a fresh state.-R. Lloyd Praeger.

BIRDS. ARRIVAL OF SUMMER MIGRANws.-Some readers of the Irish Naturalist

may like to know the dates on which the summer migrants have arrived in this neighourhood this year. The following are from personal ob servation: -Wheat-ear, March 22nd, between Kenmare ana Killarney; Swallow, April 6th, Rossbeigh; Landrail, April 26th, Cahircdveen; Cuckoo, Apnl 28th, Cahirciveen.-W. V. Delap, Cahirciveen, Co. terry.

Swallows were seen at Barne, and also near this town on April x6th for the first time this vear.-Robert Hunter. Clonmel.

THz TnR-CRcEErPR (Certhia familiaris) AS A SONG-BIRD.-Is it a fact that "most of our writers on ornithology describe the Tree-creeper as a non-singing bird ?" I am aware of one popular author (well-known in Ireland) who by implication does so; but as he pays the same in different compliment to both our common Wagtails, I can only assume that his definition of the word "song" is somewhat exacting. The

Tree-creeper's melody sounds to my ear like the syllables, "ticka-tee-tee tee-tee-tee-ticka-ticka," and is usually uttered as the bird makes a pause in its progress up the tree-trunk, and holds its head sideways in a

languishing attitude. I have the following noted as dates for first hear ing the Tree-creeper's song in different years:-i882, March 30th; 1885,

March 20th; i886, January ist (but not heard again until March 13th); I887, March igth. Since the latter date, not having been out of Dublin in early spnng, I have taken no notes on the subject.-C. B. Moffat,

Dublin. THE SPOTTED CRAKE (Porsana maruetta), ETC. IN CO. LOTJTH.-The

district lying inland from Dundalk, and extending on the one side to Crossmaglen, and on the other to Ardee, abounds in marshes, for the most part formed by bogs which have in days past been cut away, and

whicl, owing to the want of fall for main drainage, remain unreclaimed. Many of these, even to the most experienced snipe-shot, are almtost in accessible, being composed of a floating sedge which a dog can hardly cross, and hence when, ten years since, I spent much time in pursuit of long-bills, it was sometimes my good fortune to come upon specimens of the rarer of the grallatores. The Water-rail (Rallus aquaicus) was to be

met with everywhere, and I have frequently seen the young birds when duck-shooting in the month of August. In the same distnct I secured

I Carlingford is in Louth, not Down, as twice stated in the present paper.

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