100 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



on the history, and even pedigrees, of existing species. Surgeon Wilde, indeed, to* 

 whom is due ihe credit of having first mentioned the Dunshaughlin discovery, 

 about twelve years ago, has, fortunately, preserved many interesting specimens ; but 

 his collection is far from complete. And when we recollect that, since that period, 

 at least two similar bone peaks have been found one in the lake of Ballinderry, 

 near Moate, the other at Strokestown, county of Roscommon we cannot help 

 fearing that many subjects of great interest to the Irish naturalist have been lost. 

 I may add, that judging from the character of the antiquities found, under the same 

 circumstances, in each of the three localities, the animals of which the horns had 

 formed a portion, could not have existed later than the ninth or tenth century. In 

 each of the localities referred to, antlers of the red deer, similar to those before the 

 Society, were found in considerable numbers. In conclusion, I trust, on a future 

 occasion, to be able to present to our museum some additional specimens. 



Mr. Ffennell, Inspecting Commissioner of Fisheries, said that he would be 

 prepared to give a paper on the habits of the salmon, and on some peculiarities with 

 regard to the young state, at the next meeting of the Society. 



A ballot having taken place, Henry Charles Horner, Esq., of Mountjoy-square, 

 was elected a member. 



The meeting then adjourned to the month of April. 



APEIL 27, 1855. 

 CHARLES FARRAN, Esq., M.D., in the Chair. 



The previous minutes being confirmed and preliminary business disposed of, 



Mr. Andrews, Honorary Secretary, said that he had to express his regret that, 

 owing to some disarrangement in the rooms, the usual night of the meeting had been 

 postponed to this evening. He trusted, however, that such an alteration would not 

 again occur. 



The first paper on the list for the evening being Mr. Ffennell's " On the Salmon, 

 and on Peculiarities with regard to the Young State," 



Mr. Andrews said he had been handed a note from Mr. Ffennell, Commissioner 

 of Fisheries, expressing his regret that he was unable to fulfil the object of the 

 notice which he had given, to make some communications "on the salmon," as he 

 was unexpectedly obliged to be absent on public duty. 



Mr. Watters was then called on for his paper 



ON THE HABITS AND ON THE VARIETIES OF SOME OF THE LARIDJE. 



At the last meeting of your Society, a paper was read by your Honorary Secre- 

 tary, Mr. Andrews, which contained a notice of one of the Xema3, or Black-headed 

 Gulls, which coincided very closely with the measurements and descriptions of 

 Bonaparte's Gull (Larus Bonapartii). At the suggestion of Dr. Farran I have put 

 together some notes on the habits of the Larida, and on varieties incident to the 

 family, which, with some specimens to illustrate my observations, I beg to submit 

 for your approval. In the entire range of our Irish Fauna there is no family com- 

 prised in it which demands more notice from the ornithologist than the well-known 

 and widely-distributed family of the Laridae. Tenanting every variety of shore 

 sandy-beach as well as precipitous rocks the study of their habits not alone affords 

 interest to the observer, but offers a criterion and infallible index to the fisherman, 

 that where they most congregate, fish is plentiful. Simple as their habits may ap- 

 pear, I feel my own incompetency in endeavouring to create in your minds the in- 

 terest with which the birds of this family are invested. Indeed it must appear to the 

 ordinary observer as something very strange, that these mere sea-gulls flying past 

 him along our quays could possess habits of the slightest interest. But to any one 

 who has observed them in the neighbourhood of some rocky shore-line, where story 

 after story of birds take their position along the precipices, and on whose tabular 

 projections stand, not in tens or hundreds, but in thousands and tens of thousands, 

 the various members of this interesting tribe, there is almost an injunction conveyed 

 in the sight that the ornithologist is bound to make known that such things exist. 

 On several occasions I have been fortunate enough in observing a great proportion 



