This specimen came into the possession of the Earl of Derby, and is now in good preservation in our own Museum. A second specimen was killed by the same Mr. Bullock in the Isle of Uist. It was sold with the contents of his museum, in 1819, and was bought for eight guineas and transferred to the British Museum. In the last edition of Pennant's Zoology, vol. ii, p. 110, our specimen was referred to under the name of Austrian pratincole (Glareola Austriaca), where it is said, a solitary instance occurs of this curious bird, which seems to unite the swallow and the tern tribe, having visited England. It was shot in Lancashire."

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Another bird of considerable interest to us is the glossy Ibis (Ibis falcinellus), which, though not uncommon, is still an accidental visitor to this country. Yarrell tells us that " one occurred some years ago in Lancashire, and is preserved in the collection of the Earl of Derby in that county." That specimen also is now in our Museum. This bird receives a certain amount of interest from the fact that it is believed by some to be the Liver which figures upon the Liverpool arms. Montagu says, "the Ibis is adopted as a part of the arms of the town of Liverpool. This bird is termed a Liver, from which that flourishing town derived its name, and is now standing on the spot where the Pool was, on the verge of which the Liver was killed." On this passage, however, Yarrell remarks, "the arms of the town of Liverpool are, however, comparatively modern, and seem to have no reference to the Ibis. The bird has been adopted in the arms of the Earl of Liverpool, and in a recent Edition of Burke's Peerage, is described as a cormorant holding in the beak a branch of sea-weed. In the Plantagenet seal of Liverpool, which is believed to be of the time of King John, the bird has the appearance of a dove, with a sprig of olive, apparently intended to refer to the advantages that commerce would derive from peace. For a drawing of this ancient seal,

(he says), with various other particulars, and also for a notice of the recent occurrence of an Ibis near the town of Fleetwood, on the river Wyre, I am indebted to the kindness of John Skaife, Esq., of Blackburn." (II, 572.)*

The same gentlemen has in his possession a male and a female specimen of the Green Sandpiper (Totanus ochropus) that were shot at the end of July, 1837, on a small brook that falls into the Darwen, about three and a half miles south of Blackburn; and circumstances had induced the belief that this pair had bred in the neighbourhood. Another species of sandpiper, of the genus Tringa, is even more interesting from its rarity and from its having been taken within the limits of our own district. This is the Buff-breasted Sandpiper (Tringa rufescens), of which the third of the few specimens known as British was taken at Formby on the banks of the Alt, and was sent to Liverpool market for sale along with some snipes. It was a male, and is now preserved in the collection of the Rev. T. Staniforth, of Bolton Rectory, Skipton. The little Crake also (Crex pusilla) was taken in 1807, at Ardwick meadows, near Manchester.

A spurious species of coot is described by Pennant as having been discovered in Lancashire. This he calls the Great Coot (Fulica aterrima), and says that it differs from the common coot only in its superior size, and the exquisite blackness of its plumage. But modern authors reject it as a

*After all the discussions upon the identity of this bird, I confess I cannot see any reason to differ from the ingenious description given in Archæologia, vol. 21, p..543, by Wm. Hamper, Esq. As he observes-" Mr. Gregson, in his Portfolio of Fragments, pronounces this heraldic description (of a cormorant) as dubious, observing that it has been cut and carved by our artists in all shapes, from that of a goose to a long-necked heron." Without disputing as to the legend upon the modern seal, there can be no doubt that this modern seal is a copy, and a bad one, of an older seal. In both the ancient and the modern seal, however, we have a bird which has neither the long legs of a heron, nor the long neck of a liver (?), but is as good a representation of a dove bearing an olive branch as we could expect to see in such a situation. The etymology of the name of Leverpool; or Liverpool, is, doubtless, topographical rather than heraldic or armorial; indeed, Mr. Hamper gives us reason to believe that the heraldic Lever is a bunch of Flagges, vert., as in the arms of Levermore, of Devonshire.

species, and consider it to be only the adult bird, of a more decided dark colour-a mere variety.

Two birds, esteemed as great delicacies, were formerly much more common in our counties than they are at present. I refer to Ruffs and Woodcocks. The ruffs (Machetes pugnax) are chiefly found in the fenny districts of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk; but Pennant informs us that in his time they visited a place called Martin Mere, in Lancashire, at the latter end of March or beginning of April, though they did not continue there more than three weeks (Zool. ii, 75, note). With regard to Woodcocks (Scolopax rusticola), he says in his Tour, that in the northern parts of Lancashire he saw "on the plains numbers of springes for woodcocks, laid between tufts of heath, with avenues of small stones on each side, to direct these foolish birds into the snares, for they will not hop over the pebbles. Multitudes are taken in this manner in the open weather, and sold on the spot for sixteen pence or twenty pence a couple (twenty years ago at sixpence or sevenpence), and sent to the all-devouring capital by the Kendal stage.

There are several heronries mentioned in Cheshire, but I do not know of any in Lancashire. They are at Dunham Massey, the seat of the Earl of Stamford and Warrington; Combermere Abbey, the seat of Viscount Combermere ; Hooton, on the Mersey, the seat of R. C. Naylor, Esq.; Ardley Hall, the seat of R. E. Warburton, Esq.; and Oulton Park, the residence of Sir Philip Egerton, Bart., M.P.

Among natatorial birds, Bewick's swan (Cygnus Bewickii) is remarkable; for a flock of twenty-nine of these rare birds is recorded as having visited the neighbourhood of Manchester, on Dec. 10th, 1829, an account of which circumstance appeared in Mr. Blackwall's Researches in Zoology," one of these was wounded, and remained on a reservoir during nearly a year, the first four months of which it was voluntarily joined by

another of the flock." There is also a specimen in the Manchester Museum, which was obtained in the fish market of that town. The beautiful harlequin duck (Fuligula histrionica) the red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator) and the roseate Tern (Sterna Dougalii), have occurred, the first in Cheshire, and the second and third on the Lancashire coast. The great crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) was long known to breed on some of the Cheshire meres, and Pennant figures a species which he calls the Tippet grebe, as having been met with on Rostherne mere in Cheshire; but it appears to have been only an immature individual of the last species. The little Auk, however (Mergulus melanoleucos), appears to have been originally a Lancashire bird, since Pennant, who first described it as British, speaks only of one specimen, and says, "the bird our description was made from, was taken in Lancashire." One was taken alive at Sale, in Cheshire, 1824 (December 10th), and is now in the Manchester Museum. Lastly, the fork-tailed petrel (Thalassidroma Leachii) has been found both in Lancashire and Cheshire, blown inland by heavy gales from the northwest. (Loudon.)

Thus far I have confined myself to the Vertebrate Fauna, and have endeavoured to show that the counties of Lancashire and Cheshire have a zoological history of no inconsiderable interest. I have, however, yet to consider, but more briefly, the host of invertebrated animals, chiefly marine, some of which add greatly to this historical interest. For it is a noticeable fact that although we had not, a century back, a Montague upon our coast, whose researches had anticipated the work of recent observers; and further, that although no one appears to have investigated the productions of our shores until almost the present generation, when the labours of Mr. Tudor at Bootle, and Mr. Price at Birkenhead, first made our

district classical; nevertheless the researches of these gentlemen, recent as they are, have, to a certain extent, already become matters of history. For in a growing community such as Liverpool and Birkenhead, whose importance has kept pace with the facilities for the passage to and fro of ships, with the extension of docks, and with the enlargement of warehouse space, it is a natural consequence that the conservation of the river for these ends, the construction of embankments and dock-walls, have so changed the aspect of the river's banks, that many localities which once yielded objects of the highest interest to the zoologist have been totally destroyed, and the marine animals which made those localities remarkable, have disappeared with them.

In the published histories of British Invertebrate groups, the counties of Lancashire and Cheshire do not occupy a very prominent position as sources of material. Regarded from this point of view, which may to a certain extent be taken as an index of the historic richness of this district, we shall find that the labours of former observers have been represented by only two or three groups. Mollusca in general have not any remarkable history, nor can any one be named previously to the present generation in connection with this large and important group, and all, therefore, that we know of the molluscous animals of our shores is embodied in our recent Fauna. Pennant states that Venus (Cytherea) chione had been found on the Cheshire coast, but that shell has no place in our present Fauna. So also Da Costa (British Conchology, p. 213,) mentions Tellina bimaculata as occasionally found in Lancashire. This is a species considered by some naturalists to have been introduced erroneously into British catalogues. Its occasional appearance on our shores is probably to be ascribed to the frequent wreck of vessels from the West Indies, where it is abundant." Forbes and Hanley, i, 310.) Turbo exoletus (Turritella cincta of