62 Notes. 



specimens of the Common Bittern {Botatirus stellaris), Green Saifdpiper 

 ( Totatms ochropus), Red Godwit {Liinosa cegocephala), and the Spotted Crake 

 \Porzana tnaruetla). The latter was found frequently, but although I have 

 no doubt they breed in the district, I was never successful in my search 

 for their nests. Like the Water-rail, and, indeed, all gallinules, the 

 Spotted Crake rarely resorts to flight unless it sees no other means of 

 escape, preferring rather to take refuge in the nearest tuft of grass or 

 sedge until found by the sportsman's dog. When it rises its flight is very 

 rapid, not unlike that of the Quail, and being but a small mark it is not 

 easily shot. One of the specimens secured by me is now in the Science 

 and Art Museum, Dublin, and a second is to be seen at my house. — H. D. 

 M. Barton, Antrim. 



GBOLOGY. 



PERFORATIONS IN CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONE. In the demesne of 

 Brittas, adjoining this village, there are some curious perforations in the 

 limestone rock. The first of these perforations I observed are in a rock 

 which crops out of a rather steep brae (now covered with a wood) for 

 about four feet high. On the face of this rock I observed lately a num- 

 ber of round holes, as neatly formed as if bored into the stone by human 

 hands. I was curious enough to examine the stone to see what caused 

 these perforations, but found, to my surprise, that, in a part of the stone 

 which beetled over, the holes were quite numerous, in fact the rock was 

 quite honeycombed by them in places. I further observed that these 

 holes all had an upward tendency, as I found by testing by the finger. 

 These holes are all about an inch in diameter. In depth they extend 

 for about three inches into the stone, their ends being blunt and rounded. 

 The rock itself, from being exposed to the w^eathering influence of the at- 

 mosphere for untold ages, has in many places been wasted away, so that 

 the sides of some of the holes have given way, and they now show merely 

 a section of their former construction, or, according to their position, the 

 blunted terminations of the little tunnels now seen as depressions on the 

 face of the stone. Now what caused these perforations ? Most certainly 

 they were not caused by man. I have read that in the Mediterranean, 

 and other warm seas, there is a perforating mussel which bores into sub- 

 merged rocks. Could it be that when Ireland was covered by a warm 

 sea, the water was inhabited by a similar boring mussel ? If so, I would 

 be glad to know if the remains of his work have been observed in other 

 localities. — Owen Smith, Nobber, Co. Meath. 



The phenomenon described by Mr. Owen Smith seems to be the same 

 as what I have seen myself by the side of Lough Mask. The holes which 

 I saw were just what he describes, many of them looking as if they had 

 been bored artificially, they were so straight, and even, and circular. I 

 did not see any on the rock in situ ; I had not the opportunity of looking 

 for them. What I saw were in stones forming the wall by the roadside. 

 The slabs were portions of beds of the limestone, and the holes were at 

 right-angles to the bedding surfaces. Some of the slabs were, as he says, 

 quite honeycombed with them. Are there any lithodomous molluscs able 

 to produce holes so large } I cannot think that they could make them 

 so straight and even. The most probable explanation seems to be that 

 they have been dissolved out by water ; but why or how it should work 

 in that way I cannot imagine. If Mr. Smith's are not at right angles to 

 the bedding planes, it will be very interesting, and will help us to choose 

 between the only two alternatives that I can think of, weathering, or the 

 action of a boring mollusc— Rev. M. H. Close, Dublin. 



[Will Mr. Smith kindly forward us a specimen of the perforated rock.— 



e;d.] 



