April, 1898,] Sg 



NATURAI^ISTS AT MOTE PARK. 



BY R. I.I.OYD PRA^GER, B.A. 



As THK result of a kind invitation from I^ord Crofton, a 

 little party of naturalists, consisting of Prof T. Johnson, Mr. 

 R. J. Mitchell, Mr. J. N. Halbert, and myself left Dublin on 

 May 30th last, to spend a week in investigating the flora and 

 fauna of Mote Park near Roscommon, and its neighbourhood. 

 We were met at Ballymurray station b}^ Hon. R. K- Dillon, 

 who acted as guide during our stay, and on arrival at Mote 

 Park we found Mr, W. F. de V. Kane. With the assist- 

 ance of bicycles and of the vehicles which I^ord Crofton 

 placed at our disposal, we were able to cover a good deal of 

 ground, and to get a fair idea of the surrounding district and 

 its biological possibilities, from the River Suck to I^ough Ree, 

 and for some miles northward and southward of Mote Park. 

 County Roscommon is par excellence a grazing country. 

 Marshes have been drained, stream-courses deepened 

 and straightened, and the greater part of the surface is 

 occupied by large pasture fields, unsuitable for the operations 

 of the naturalist. The woods of Mote Park, containing 

 much decaying timber, supplied good hunting-ground for 

 the entomologist and cryptogamic botanist, but the student 

 of flowering plants soon found that the rabbits had taken 

 what the cattle had spared ; the phanerogamic flora proved 

 decidedly limited. Hills or rocks there were none. The 

 extensive bogs, and adjoining marshy meadows, yielded a 

 good harvest, and a day spent on I^ough Ree, and another 

 along the banks of the Suck at Mount Talbot, by kind invi- 

 tation of Mr. W. J. Talbot, D.I^., yielded a number of species 

 that we did not meet with elsewhere. 



A short afternoon spent further up the Suck, at Dunamon 

 Castle, on the Galway bank, made us wish to do further col- 

 lecting on the rough boggy and swampy ground by the river 

 side, On the whole, the entomologists of the party (Messrs. 

 Kane, Dillon, and Halbert) secured excellent results, as will 

 be seen by the papers which follow. Prof. Johnson and Mr. 

 Mitchell devoted themselves to the collection of fungi, parti- 

 culars of which will, no doubt, be published in due course. 



To I,ord Crofton and the Misses Crofton our warmest 

 thanks are due for their great kindness, and continual help* 

 fulness in our researches. 



