i9t^. Proceedings of Irish Societies. 21 



, One Baru Owl has been known to kill twenty rats in one night, and 

 this silent and unpaid worker would save the farmers many hundreds 

 of pounds every year if only it received a little protection and 

 encouragement. Our forefathers were wiser than we are, because they 

 always left a hole in every baru so that owls could come out and in as 

 they liked, and so rid the barns of the mice which live there at the expense 

 of the owner. The only other bird we know anything about is the 

 House Sparrow, which is known in America as the English Sparrow. 

 No bird ever had a fairer or more impartial trial both here and America ; 

 the verdict is guilty, wuth scarcely one extenuating circumstance. It is 

 hard for us to realise the cost of this bird in figures, but a large 

 farmer near Chester told his audience that sparrows did the country 

 ;/r77o,094 worth of damage in a year, reckoning one bushel per sown 

 acre all over the country. It is now ktiown that this measure is too low. 

 The result of an examination of 694 stomachs of adult sparrows at 

 various times and places in Great Britain for over twelve months should 

 make the farmer pause. It shows that about 80 per cent, of an adult 

 sparrow's food is cultivated grain of some sort, chiefly corn, while only 10 

 percent, consists of the seeds of w-eeds. In nestling sparrows not more 

 than 40 per cent, is insect, while 40 per cent consists of corn, but the 

 insects are only taken in this quantity till the yoimg sparrow is sixteen 

 days old. After that he feeds chiefly on corn. Admirable publications 

 on the .subject of the food of birds are issued by the American Bureau of 

 Biological Survey, and these he held up as a model to the authorities 

 in this country. Owing to the importance of this question to our 

 farmers, and the country generally, it should be taken up by the English 

 and Irish Departments of Agriculture. The money spent on such an 

 investigation would be repaid many times over, and its importance is 

 such that no more time should be lost before economic ornithology is 

 established as a regular branch of our Agricultural Department. 



The address was discussed by Messrs. N. H. Foster, William Gra}', and 

 W. J. C. Tomliuson. The election of three new members concluded a 

 most successful meeting. 



December, 9: — ZoologicaIv Sec i ion. The first meeting of the 

 winter session was held in the Museum, the President (Robert Patter- 

 son , F.L S.,)in the chair. The Vice-President (W. H. Gai^eway) brought 

 before the meeting a summary of the dredging operations carried on by 

 the Ulster Fisheries and Biology Association in Belfast.Lough during the 

 summer. He said that the Association having decided in the spring of 

 1908 to transfer their Laboratory from Larne Harbour to Bangor, he had 

 been appointed honorar}' naturalist. It was part of his duties to take 

 out the Association's steam launch " Mysis," and dredge for material to 

 supply the members who took up the study of the various groups. 

 The best find was a specimen of that exceedingly rare marine slug, 

 PleurophylUdia Loveni. Only two or three specimens have been taken in 

 Great Britain, and this specimen was the first recorded from Irish 

 waters. Miss Clara Patterson, the daughter of the President, kindiy 

 painted the animal's portrait — a most difficult task. The little animal 



