1924. News Gleanings. 7 



NEWS GLEANINGS. 



The year just passed has brought with it various changes which have 

 a bearing on Irish natural science. In the case of Prof. Carpenter, wiio 

 bade farewell to our readers early in the year, Ireland's loss has been 

 England's gain, since for the last nine months he has been busily engaged 

 as Keeper of the Manchester jNIuseum. 



Mr. J.N. Halbert's retirement last spring from his post in the National 

 Museum is another loss to Irish zoology, but fortunately there is no 

 reason to think that he will, in consequence, relinquish his faunistic 

 studies : it is to be hoped that the reverse will be the case. 



At the end of the year R. Welch relinquished the presidency of the 

 Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland, making way for 

 J. Wilfrid Jackson ; and K. Lloyd Praeger retired from his two-years' 

 tenure of the presidency of the British Ecological Society, being succeeded 

 by Prof. Weiss, F.R.S., of Manchester. 



NOTES. 



The Irish Grouse. 



The announcement is made in British Birds for October that our 

 Irish Red Grouse, to which Pastor Kleinschmidt in 191 9 accorded specific 

 rank under the name of Teirao hibernicus, is considered by Mr. Witherby 

 to deserve separation as a sub-species from the British form, and should 

 therefore be known as Lagopiis scoticus hibernicus (Kleinschmidt). To 

 the same form Mr. Witherby refers the Red Grouse from the Outer 

 Hebrides, which Pastor Kleinschmidt had separated as a third species 

 under the name Teirao dresseri. The most striking feature of the 'Irish 

 and Hebridean Grouse seems to be the paler and more yellowish tint of 

 its winter plumage ; but a full description is to appear in the last number 

 of the " Practical Handbook of British Birds." 



Great Shoals of Fish near Glenarm, Co. Antrim. 



Hearing that big shoals of hsli had been seen near Glenarm, last 

 September, I wrote the Rector, Rev. T. P. Waring, and he replies as 

 follows : — " Fish have been very plentiful of late along this coast ; 

 fishermen say they are following the Herring fry which have remained near 

 the coast much longer than usual. ]\Iany more large catches could 

 have been made [than were made], but there is little demand for the 

 fish, which arc mostly " Blocken " or " Glashen" {Merlangus carbonariiis 

 Flem. ), Lythe and Cod. On one occasion, that referred to in newspaper 

 reports, the boats were filled to sinking point, and might have been so 

 many times since, had there been a demand for the fish." 



R. J. Welch. 

 Belfast. 



