Notes. 171 



tigos, will be pleased to know that there is a small spot in Killanley m arsh 

 Co. Sligo, where V. augustior is living. I have got numbers at the roots 

 of grass, but only on a favourable day, when the atmosphere is warm and 

 moist, are the little creatures to be found easily ; a cold or dry day sends 

 them out of sight somewhere. They are not shy, but soon begin to crawl 

 about the collecting box. I discovered this habitat several years ago, and 

 sent some living specimens to the late Dr. Jeffreys, who wished to make 

 some notes on the animal. I have also found V. substriata in the same 

 marsh, but it is niuch rarer here than F. augustior. I may add that I have 

 frequently seen the latter in shell-sand from the sea-shore. — Amy Warren, 

 Moy View, Ballina. 



IvAND SHE1.1.S FROM Co. DoNKGAi.. On the occasion of the excursion 

 of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club to Bundoran and Sligo, in July last, 

 I wandered along the sandy shores of the River Erne, close to its mouth, 

 and was watching the evolutions of a flock of a dozen fine Sheldrake, 

 which were circling round, when my attention was directed to a deposit 

 left by the receding waves at high water-mark, and which, on inspection, 

 was found to consist mainly of innumerable specimens of small land.- 

 shells, mixed with sand, scraps of sea- weed, and rabbits' droppings. I 

 brought away a box full of the material for examination, and finding the 

 smaller forms too critical for my limited knowledge, I sent a portion to 

 Dr. R. F. Scharff, who picked out from one and a-half ounces of the stuff, 

 no less than 1050 specimens of land-shells (unbroken ones only counted) 

 representing eighteen different species, several of the more abundant 

 forms being rare or local species in Ireland. The following list, which 

 Dr. Scharff kindly sent me, gives the proportion of the different kinds: — 

 Pupa muscorum, 508 specimens ; Helix xnUehella, 166; Vertigo augustior, 134; 

 Glausilia bidentata, 44 ; GochlicojM lubrica, 53 ; Vertigo pygmma, 32 ; Carychium 

 minimum, 25; Helix Mspida, 23; Vertigo pusilla, 15; Helix acuta, 14; Vertigo 

 striata, 11; Hyalinia crystallina, 11; Helix nemoralis (juv.), 5 ; Helix pygmma 

 3 ; Hyalinia fulva, 3 ; Hyalinia cellaria (juv), 1 ; Vertigo edentula, 1 ; Helix 

 ericetoriim (juv.), i. Two young Hydrohice also cccured, a young Cardium, 

 and a young Pleurotoma, derived from the marine waters adjoining. As 

 regards the origin of the material, the fact of the shells being discovered 

 in a dead state cast up by the waves, of course precludes a positive state- 

 ment; but judging by the entire absence of fresh-water shells and plants, 

 twigs, leaves, and other transported matter, which would certainly have 

 been present had the deposit been derived from the upper reaches of 

 the river, or from the extensive sheets of inland water through which it 

 flows, and by the abundance of rabbits' droppings, and the character of 

 the shells themselves, several of which particularly favour dry and sandy 

 places near the sea, there can be no doubt that the material came from 

 the extensive stretch of sand-dunes that fringe both sides of the river- 

 mouth, whence it was washed down by heavy rains. In this opinion 

 Dr. Scharff agrees with me, and I quite expect that all the species men- 

 tioned will be found living there by the first conchologist who investigates 

 the neighbourhood. — R. Lloyd Praeger. 



BIRDS. 



Ruddy Shei^drakes, (Tadorna rtitila), in Irei^and. A flock of 

 five of these birds appeared at Skerries in the latter part of June, of which 

 three were shot, two unfortunately not preserved. Another was shot a 

 week later at Drogheda, probably part of the same flock. I have heard 

 of another shot at the same time at Portarlington, Queen's County. — K. 

 Williams, Dublin ( in Zoologist for October). 



Sea-birds in Co. S1.1GO. It may interest some of your readers to 

 know that a fine specimen of the rare Pomatorine Skua, Stercorarius p)oriia- 

 torhinus, was washed ashore at Enniscrone, Co. Sligo, on Monday, the 3rd 

 October. I found it quite fresh and uninjured when searching for shells, 

 after a storm from the north. The following day my brother got a 

 Fulmar Petrel, Fulmarus glacialis, and two young Gannets, Sula hassana, on 

 another part of the sandy beach, the same tide had evidently washed them 

 all in. — Amy Warren, Moy View, Ballina. 



