148 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



Owing to the lateness of the hour the remaining papers were postponed. 



R. P. Maxwell, Esq., Groorasfort, Bangor, was elected a member of the Society. 



The meeting then adjourned to the 12th of May. 



MAY 12, 1854. 

 Dr. Croker, M.R.I.A., in the chair. 



The usual introductory business having been disposed of, the following donations 

 were submitted to the Society by the Honorary Secretary, William Andrews, 

 Esq. : — Journals of the Geological Society of Dublin, for 1852, '53, '54, from the 

 Society ; Proceedings of the Royal Society, March and April, 1854 ; Anniversary 

 Addresses to the Entomological Society, London, presented by the President, J. O. 

 Westwood, Esq., F.R.S. ; and the Natural History Review, Nos. I. and II., by the 

 Editors. 



Mr. R. P. Williams presented to the Museum specimens of game fowl from 

 Ceylon, for the first time exhibited in Ireland. The cock was a bird imported 

 direct ; the hen bred from him and a hen, also an imported bird. Mr. 

 Williams begged to call attention to the peculiarity of this breed, which differs in 

 the carriage of the tail, from all the known varieties of domesticated poultry. In 

 the varieties with which we are acquainted the u planes" of the tail are brought 

 together, and carried erect over the back, the "sickle" feathers covering them on each 

 side ; while in the Cingalese the tail is carried on a level with the back, as in the wild 

 species, the long feathers of the tail drooping so as to sweep the ground when the 

 bird stands erect, the feathers of which are much narrower and more abundant 

 than those we are accustomed to, and turn outwards at the extremities. The breed 

 is also peculiar from having no wattles, and the throat naked for about one-fourth 

 of its length ; the comb is very small, and indented, resembling the Malay. Mr. 

 W. alluded to the many theories as to the varieties derived from domestication of 

 the wild breeds, and if disposed to speculate on that question, might be inclined to 

 refer the Ceylon fowl to the Gallus Furcatus, which is wild in Ceylon, and to 

 which it bears some resemblance in the points referred to, but particularly in the 

 carriage and formation of the tail. He also presented, beautifully preserved in a 

 case, the skeleton of the long- eared bat — Plecotus auritus. 



Mr. R. J. Montgomery presented the nest and eggs of the long-tailed titmouse, 

 Parus caudatus, and the eggs of the little grebe, Podiceps minor ; he also pre- 

 sented the nest of the cole- titmouse, Parus ater. This beautifully-formed nest he 

 met with at the foot of a tree ; but it was placed so far in from the aperture, that 

 he had to excavate 8} feet before he reached it. With regard to the nest of the little 

 grebe, he mentioned that, at Beaulieu, in the county of Louth, the bird had been 

 for several years in the habit of breeding under the bank at the edge of the water ; 

 but the nest having been frequently destroyed by rats, the bird had formed it at a 

 distance of thirty yards from the bank, attached to the stem of aquatic plants. It 

 had, however, broken adrift, and he found the nest with the eggs floating about the 

 pond. 



Dr. Kinahan begged to present a specimen of the common shrew, Sorex rusticus 

 (Jen.), found dead at Donnybrook, county Dublin ; at the same time he called 

 the attention of the Society to two bats presented by him — one obtained in the county 

 Clare, in 1852, presented February 10, 1853, and referred, in doubt, to Vespertilio 

 Daubentonii ; the other obtained in the county Kildare, in 1853, and presented 

 at the December meeting of the same year as V. Nattereri, though, at the same time, 

 pointed out as different in some respects from the description of that bat. He now 

 called the attention of the Society to them for the purpose of correcting an error of 

 nomenclature into which he was led, and which he has been enabled to correct 

 through the kindness of Professor Bell, who carefully examined the specimens, 

 and states that the bat captured in Clare is Ves. mystacinus (Leisl.), a species new 

 to Ireland, and a species the resemblance of which to Dr. Kinahan's specimen he 

 had himself before called attention to. The other bats Professor Bell refers to 

 V. Daubentonii, a species captured some years ago in Londonderry, but no Irish 

 specimens of which were until now extant. Dr. Kinahan had carefully compared, 



