HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



247 



several years my brother has taken large numbers 

 of this butterfly, by far the greater portion having 

 the wings more or less clipped. This was not 

 owing to the length of time they had been out, 

 as the colours were quite, fresh and bright. The 

 showier Atalanta is rarely found in this damaged 

 condition. With Hyperanthus the case is different ; 

 this insect does not get torn, but soon becomes 

 faded. Cassiope and Medea are still more delicate. 

 And amongst moths, Epunda lutulenta almost 

 directly after emergence adorns itself with notches 

 in its wings, so that specimens— and I have taken 

 many — are very difficult. to obtain in good order. 

 Who, too, cannot speak from experience of the 

 manner iu which the handsome Catocalidce disfigure 

 themselves ? Geometers, as a rule, wear well ; 

 doubtless owing to their extreme lightness ; though 

 there are exceptions, as Scotosia dubitata, &c. The 

 question arises, why this difference as to the 

 " wearing " of various species ? As is well known, 

 the wings are formed by a transparent membrane 

 covered with what are termed scales, arranged 

 somewhat like the tiles on a roof; each having 

 a little stalk which fits into a socket in the mem- 

 brane. It is said that there is no colouring matter 

 in these scales, but that the colours are produced 

 by the interference and decomposition of light. It 

 follows, then, that the faded appearance cannot be 

 due to any destruction or alteration of colouring 

 matter, as that of the chlorophyll in plants, but 

 must be caused entirely by the loss of the scales ; 

 that in some species the scales are attached very 

 slightly, and thus being easily removed, the insect 

 soon looks shabby. Amphiplyra pyramided and the 

 beautiful Xanthia genus are examples of Lepido- 

 ptera with the scales but slightly connected. Con- 

 trast these with Aprillna and Metlculosa. Whilst 

 the Sallows will scarcely bear a touch without 

 injury, the last-named may be handled even roughly 

 and not receive any appreciable damage. 



With those species which, like Sibylla, Iris, and 

 Lutulenta, are so often caught with little pieces out 

 of their wings, it seems to me we must attribute 

 as the cause thereof the peculiar brittleness of the 

 alar membrane itself. 



Joseph Anderson, Jun. 



SKETCHES IN THE WEST OF IRELAND. 



No. 9. Aran Islands. 



{Post-Christian Antiquities — continued.} 



By G. H. Kinahan, M.R.I.A. 



TN connection with the old churches, especially 

 -*- in Western Ireland, are peculiar stone basins 

 called bullans. These seem to be more or less 

 peculiar to that country ; if not, elsewhere they are 

 commonly passed over unnoticed. The Irish bullans 



may be classed, as shallow or dish-shaped, and 

 deep or bowl-shaped. Some of the first are large 

 oval dishes, and seem to be pre-Christian, as they 

 have only been found in the interior of the De 

 Danaan tniams or earns. The accompanying cut, 

 taken from a sketch (fig. 154) given me by the late 

 G. V. du Noyers, M.R.I.A., represents the bullan 

 in the large cam at Slieve-na-Caillighe, county 

 Meath. These large bullans are oval ; and similar- 

 shaped ones, but much smaller, occur in, or in the 

 vicinity of, some of these older churches of the 

 West ; while in South-east Ireland an inter- 

 mediate type— round shallow bullans— have been 

 remarked ; one occurring at Bannow, county Wex. 

 ford ; while at Donaghmore, in the same county, 

 there is a peculiar, probably uniquely carved bullan. 

 It was cut in a small block of micasyte, was twelve 

 inches in diameter and about three inches deep, its 

 interior being sculptured after a six-cornered cross. 

 It is now broken, and a small portion of it gone, 

 but fig. 155 represents what it originally was. 



The second, or bowl-shaped bullans, are typically 

 Irish. They are generally from twelve to sixteen 

 inches in diameter and from six to ten inches deep, 

 the depth being more than half the diameter. A few 

 are much smaller, about the size of a teacup. 

 Usually they are single, but in places two, three, 

 and, in one instance, five have been recorded as 

 occurring together in one block of stone. In 

 general, a very hard stone has been selected by the 

 stone-cutter; thus, in the county Gal way they have 

 been scooped out in granite or sandstone erratics. 

 Of those we have seen, only four were in limestone, 

 one of which is a blessed well, hereafter to be men- 

 tioned, on Araumore ; two, forming wells, which seem 

 to be modern, occur together at Lisdoonvarna, county 

 Clare ; while the fourth was lately pointed out by 

 Mr. Fitzgerald, of Holy Cross, Lough Gur, county 

 Limerick. All these bullans are cut in the solid rock, 

 but the latter, which lies a little south-east of the 

 historical Lough Gur, is also remarkable for its 

 unique shape, being an inverted cone nineteen inches 

 deep and twelve or thirteen inches in diameter 

 (fig. 156). 



This class of bullan in general occurs in the 

 vicinity of churches, but not always. In the valley 

 north of Adrigole, Bantry Bay, a so-called holy 

 well, is a bullan that was cut in the horizontal stone 

 of acromleac, while on the hill north-west of the 

 same village is a second bullan cut in a block of 

 stone, that seems also to have been a portion of a 

 cromleac ; and in the hills north-east of Tulla, 

 county Clare, a bullan cut in the solid rock (sand- 

 stone) was observed. None of these places seem 

 to be at all connected with ancient ecclesiastical 

 establishments. 



What were the bullans ? It has been suggested 

 that the bullans in the cams were corn-crushers, 

 such structures having been built not as burial- 



