20 The Irish Naturalist. ' January, 



BELFAST NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUB. 



October 27. — Conversazione. — The Club inaugurated its forty- 

 ninth winter session by a conversazione, which was held in the hall of the 

 Assembly Buildings. After tea the company spent an interesting evening 

 examining the scientific exhibits, which were very varied in character. In 

 the zoological section the special exhibit lent by the Belfast Municipal 

 Museum attracted much attention. It included nine cases of rare birds, 

 including Bonaparte's Gull, Sabine's Gull, and Bonaparte's Sandpiper, 

 also a series of cases of injurious insects mounted to show their life-histories. 

 G. Donaldson showed a case of Indian butterflies, and N. H. Foster had an 

 exhibit of birds' eggs, showing variation among those of the same species. 

 J. Hamilton exhibited living specimens of the larva of the Fox Moth. 

 W. F. M' Kinney brought some insects, showing protective coloration 

 from Brazil, and also Australian and Spanish shells. A. W. Stelfox ex- 

 hibited living specimens of the larger British land shells. R. J. Welch's 

 exhibit of the land and fresh-water mollusca from the south-east of 

 England was a series showing mainly species which do not occur in Ireland? 

 except a very few in the south-east, and included two new British species, 

 Plancrhis vorticuhis and Valvata macrostoma. J. A. S. Stendall showed, 

 by the aid of the microscope, the circulation of the blood in the foot of the 

 Common Frog, and H. L. Orr brought a Thrush's nest with unusual 

 lining, and a wasps' nest in a flower-pot. R. H. Whitehouse exhibited the 

 parasite of sleeping sickness, and small jelly-lish from the plankton of the 

 English Channel. Professor Gregg Wilson illustrated variation in Guille- 

 mots' eggs. 



In the botanical section, one of the features was a very fine series of 

 water-colour drawings of British plants, by Dr. H. Drinkwater (Wrexham), 

 In interesting contrast to this last-mentioned exhibit was water-colour 

 drawings of British plants and series of shells, by A. G. Stubbs (Herts.) 

 who used transparent colours instead of the opaque medium employed by 

 Dr. Drinkwater. N. Carrothers's exhibit included Lathyrus paliistris, Rosa 

 hihernica, Spiranthes Romanzoifiana from Co. Down, Pyrola secunda from 

 Co. Antrim, and Pyrola rotundifolia from Lancashire. 



Specimens of Irish lichens were shown by M. J. Glover. Rev. Canon 

 Lett showed under cultivation the rare hepatics Dumortiera irrigua and 

 Pellia calycina. W. H. Phillips had some very fine nature -prints of British 

 ferns, and the Rev. C. H. Waddell had an exhibit of botanical specimens. 



In the geological section R. Bell exhibited Cephalopoda from the Lower 

 Lias, Co. Antrim. C. Bulla's exhibit of Carboniferous fish-remains included 

 representative of the following genera : — Cladodus, Labadus, Deltopty- 

 chius, Ordous, and Colonodus, G. Donaldson showed his prize collection 

 of local Cretaceous fossils, and also shells from the Boulder -clays of Antrim 

 and Down. Dr. A. R. Dwerryhouse exhibited a magnificient collection of 

 fossil Echinodermata. W. Gray illustrated Limestone in its geological and 

 economic aspects. J. Strachan had specimens of eurite from Ailsa Craig, 

 some very rare zeolities from foreign sources, and polished agate. 



