Bittern in Co. TyroneAuthor(s): W. H. WorkmanSource: The Irish Naturalist, Vol. 26, No. 3 (Mar., 1917), p. 53Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25524596 .

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I9I7 Notes. S3

NOTES.

ZOOLOGY.

Frogs Spawning in Severe Weather.

I must supplement the note I wrote last winter (vol. xxv, p. 52) on "

Frogs spawning in January," by mentioning that during the present winter I saw no frog-spawn until February 14th. On that day, examining three separate spawning pools?two of them half a mile apart?I found

masses of the jelly-like substance in them all. The date is ten days later

than the latest recorded in my previous note ; but as the country on Feb..

14th was still under a mantle of snow which had lain for a full calendar

month the difference is not greater than might have been expected. The

present winter has been the severest experienced here for 36 years, and

the snowfall of January 26th {which fell on ground already twelve days under snow) was the heaviest since that of January 17th, 1881. With

the exception of one week?December 28th to January 3rd, inclusive

(during which week I may add that Pipistrelles were flying numerously

every night)?we have had uninterrupted cold weather since December

roth, and it was only in the immediate neighbourhood of springs, even

in the second week of February, that the Frogs could spawn, the pools elsewhere being still under ice. It shows how inveterate is their habit

of early spawning that they began when they did.

C. B. Moffat.

Bittern in Co. Tyrone.

My friend, A?r. W. C. Wright, of Belfast, published in British Birds

for January last that a Bittern (Botaurns stellavis) shot near Coalisland, Co. Tyrone, on December 2nd, 1916, proved to be a female, with the

feathers of the head and neck in a state of moult. The ovaries

were in a diseased state and the stomach contained a perch nine inches

long. I think the above of great interest to Irish ornithologists,

W. H. Workman.

Belfast

Jays in County Dublin.

Within the last few months a considerable number of Jays, about

30 birds, have appeared in the southern part of the county about Brittas, and are still located there. I am not aware that these birds have ever been

observed in the locality before,

G. C. May,

Dublin,

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