Rayed Animals found in Ireland. 417 



they frequently chase people with great ferocity ,- that their 

 bite has been often fatal ; that they sometimes coil themselves 

 around the limbs of persons, so that it becomes necessary to 

 cut them loose ? Is it not notorious that they suck the cows ? " 

 I once pleaded with a farmer for the life of a poor black 

 snake that he had pinned to the earth with a stick. " I make 

 it a rule to kill every snake that I meet with," replied the bar- 

 barian : " d — n them, I hate from the bottom of my soul the 

 whole race." I wish from the bottom of my soul that that 

 prince of mischief and ugliness, Old Nick, had not taken it 

 into his head to assume the appearance of a snake when he 

 undertook to tempt our lovely but frail mother Eve : much of 

 the prejudice against snakes, I am persuaded, has arisen from 

 this circumstance. My dear friend, I have, from my boyhood, 

 been in the habit of roaming on foot in various parts of our 

 country; I have explored forests, swamps, and morasses for 

 hundreds of miles ; and nave beheld hundreds of black snakes 

 in a state of nature ; but never, in one instance, did I see 

 them practise the reputed art of fascination ; never did I see 

 them chase a human being; never did I see them suck a cow ; 

 and never did I know them do the least injury, with the ex- 

 ception of an insignificant scratch, to any one. 

 Buckingham, Pennsylvania, January 9. 1836. 



Art. V. A Catalogue of the Species of Rayed Animals found in 

 Ireland, as selected from the Papers of the late J. Templeton, 

 Esq., of Cranmore, 'with Notices of Localities, and with some De- 

 scriptions and Illustrations. By Robert Templeton, Esq. 



(Continued from p. 305.) 



RADIATA. 



POLYPI. 



ge'latineux Cuv. 

 Hydra Linn. 



brunnea. {fig. 56.) Deep brown, with from 4 to 6 slen- 

 der, tapering, brown tentacula, scarcely exceeding the 

 length of the body ; the peduncle nearly transparent. 

 Found adhering to the stems of Potamogeton natans 

 in the Lagan canal ; June, 1805. 



In H. fusca of Trembley the tentacula are " lon- 

 gissimis albis," which clearly distinguishes it from the 

 above. # 



[* Mr. Templeton expressed, previously to his departure for Malta, on 

 about April 12. 1836, a wish that his catalogue could be submitted to 



