73 jTAj Irisli Satiiyalist. April, 191 7. 



BOTANY. 



Foxgloves Killed by Cold. 



An unexpected effect in my garden of the very cold February through 

 which we this year passed has been the complete killing of numbers of 

 healthy self-sown one-year-old plants of Foxgloves. I put it down to 

 the fact that they were growing more in the open than they do in wild 

 situations, but a recent visit to Aughrim in Co. Wicklow, showed that 

 there Foxgloves had in many instances been killed even in partial shelter, 

 while even on hedge-banks under trees all the larger leaves were dead, 

 and only the heart displayed signs of life. This tenderness to cold would 

 hardly be expected in a plant which ranges across Central Europe, and 

 northward into Scandinavia. 



R. Lloyd Praeger. 



Dublin. 



ZOOLOGY. 

 Unusual Flight of a Kingfisher. 



Some twelve months ago, near the River Dodder on the south side of 

 Dublin, my wife and I heard a note which she identified as that of a 

 Kingfisher, proceeding from a l>ird which was flying in wide sweeps so 

 high over our heads as to be little more than a speck. After performing 

 these evolutions for a while, uttering its note at intervals, the bird descended 

 till it passed close to us, and its identitj^ as a Kingfisher was duly estab- 

 lished. Several ornithologists of whom I enquired having said they have 

 not observed such lofty flights on the part of a Kingfisher, undertaken 

 apparently without specilic purpose, I venture to publish this obser- 

 vation. 



R. Lloyd Praeger. 



Dublin. 



Night Heron near Dublin. 



In Easter week, igi6, a Night Heron {Nycticorax griseits) appeared at 

 Bushy Park, Terenure, and remained till September. It was not at all 

 wild, and could easily be watched with glasses. It generally perched 

 by day on a willow tree close to the pond, but at night it was always 

 moving about and flying round. Between 8 and 10 p.m. it generally 

 fiew, uttering a peculiar note rather like the Common Heron, but yet quite 

 distinct from the latter. It seemed a young bird, as the breast and back 

 were mottled to a certain extent, the plumage being intermediate between 

 that of the two mounted specimens in the National Museum. I am 

 informed that the last occurrence of this bird was in 1882 in the Rathgar 

 quarry, only a mile away. 



I'REDERicK W. Shaw. 



Bushy Park, Terenure. 



