2o6 The Ifish Naturalist, October, 



why should it not ? But what are its children like ? I may add that by 

 crossing 5. timbrosa and 5. Geum, Mr. C. F. Ball has produced at Glasnevin 

 a hybrid which is to all purposes identical with the one mentioned above 

 as found on Clare Island. 



R, Lloyd Praeger. 

 DubUn. 



Spiranthes autumnalis in the Phoenix Park. 



In the Irish Naturalist for 1906 (p. 279) I recorded the finding of three 

 plants of Spiranthes autumnalis in the old locality in the Phoenix Park, 

 where it was stated to grow in Miss Baily's " Irish Flora " (1833), but where 

 so far as Mr. Colgan was able to inform me, it did not seem to have been 

 noticed since. I now write to say that I have in most years since 1906 

 looked it up in the same locality — in 1907 I found as many as 34 flowering 

 spikes, and on August 30th of the present year I counted 38, so the little 

 orchid's hold on the old ground is not so precarious as I imagined in 1906, 

 when I could only discover 3 spikes. 



C. B. Moffat. 



Dublin. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Woodlice from the Great Blasket, South Kerry. 



Amongst other animals which I collected on the Blaskets in June of 

 this year were the following terrestrial isopods. Mr. Nevin H. Foster, 

 M.R.I. x\., has kindly identified the species : — Trichoniscus pusillus Brandt. 

 — Common in the damper parts of the cliffs, otherwise rare. Philoscia 

 muscorum (Scopoli). — Generally distributed and common. Oniscus 

 asellus, Linn. — Also common all over the island. Porcellio scaber Latreille. 

 — Only locally common. 



All the above four species were taken by me on Beginish also, where 

 both T. pusillus and P. scaber were more abundant than on the Great 

 Blasket. 



A. W. Stelfox. 



Belfast. 



Kestrel and Magpie. 



Mr. Pentland, in his article on the Louth fauna, supra, pp. 145-8), men- 

 tions that both the Magpie and the Kestrel have, from unknown causes, 

 become much less common than formerly. The decrease of the Kestrel 

 in Louth may, I think, be a result of that of the Magpie ; for the former 

 bird, in inland districts, almost invariably rears its young in the nests 

 built by the latter. Hence the spread of the Magpie promotes the extension 

 of the Kestrel's range ; and it seems from Mr. Pentland's observations 

 that the decrease of the Magpie has actually had — as might have been 

 expected — the opposite effect of thinning the Kestrel's numbers. 



Dublin, C. B. Moffat, 



