82 The Irish Naturalist. August, 



those of our modern Squirrel — have subsisted chiefly on 

 acorns, hazel-nuts, fungi, and such minor dainties as haws, 

 blackberries, and various oak-galls. They would, I think, 

 have found it absolutely necessary either to hibernate or 

 to lay up a winter store ; for of the above-mentioned foods, 

 only the haws and some of the oak-galls would be obtain- 

 able in the winter months, and none of them could be 

 trusted in a hard season to last the winter through. 



Our modern Squirrel does not, in my opinion, undergo 

 even a partial hibernation. Daily throughout the winter 

 he is to be seen abroad in the trees, as numerously as in 

 the height of summer, and as well provided with food. If 

 he ever stores up nuts or acorns I have no evidence of it, 

 and it could only be the survival of a habit for which there 

 is no longer any use. I do not think an animal of such 

 easy-going ways could ever have bridged the gulf between 

 the felling of the last Irish pine-forest and the re-plantation 

 of the country with our present stock of coniferous trees. 

 If he did so, he must have had some means of subsistence 

 to which his present descendants do not resort. 



IRISH SOCIETIES. 



BELFAST NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUB. 



May 19.— Excursion to Black Mountain. — Forty-five members 

 assembled at Wood vale Park at 2.30, and under the conductorship 

 of Mr. Robert Bell, walked to the site of the prehistoric flint factory on 

 the Black Mountain, on the east side of the hill at an elevation of about 

 eight hundred feet. Two areas have been carefully dug over, and have 

 yielded a large number of flint flakes, but comparatively few implements, 

 and these of a very early rude t3^pe. The finds include implements with 

 spurs, the use of which is unknown ; a leaf-shaped implement of proto- 

 Solutrian type, an occasional antler of the red deer, scrapers, hammer- 

 stones, and cores. 



The party got to work with hammers, pocket picks and walking sticks, 

 and quite a considerable number of specimens were unearthed. 

 Few plants of special interest were noted. 



At a short business meeting (Rev. W. R. Megaw, B.A,, presiding), 

 nine senior and seven junior members were elected. 



