July, 1897.] 173 



SOME OBSERVATIONS BY ENGI.ISH NATURAUSTS 



ON THE FAUNA OF RATHUN ISI.AND, AND 



BAI.LYCASTI.E DISTRICT. 



I.— GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



BY R. STANDEN. 



The exceeding richness of the field for study of various 

 departments of Natural History, afforded by Ballycastle and 

 surrounding district, induced Dr. G. W. Chaster, of Southport, 

 MrJ. Ray Hardy, of Manchester, and myself, to avail ourselves 

 of an opportunity of re-visiting a place which our experience 

 of last year had proved to be well worthy of further investiga- 

 tion. Accordingly, the i8th of May found us again com- 

 fortably installed in our quarters at the Antrim Arms 

 Hotel, with a valuable addition to our working force in 

 the person of Mr. I,ionel E* Adams (Hon. Treasurer of the 

 Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland), an 

 enthusiastic naturalist, and well-known conchologist, who had 

 been induced to accompany us. I^ater in the week we were 

 joined by Mr. R. J. Welch, and Mr. W. Welch, of Belfast. 



Our stay lasted exactly a week, and it is hardly possible to 

 imagine a pleasanter time, or a busier one. I cannot refrain 

 from alluding to the kindness and indulgence shown by our 

 host and hostess, Mr. and Mrs. Hunter, to '* hunters " who 

 cumbered the place with all sorts of extraordinary objects I 

 It often happens when a par-ty of naturalists engage in a 

 campaign that each one sticks to his own speciality, without 

 trying to help the others, but we, on this occasion, did not 

 confine ourselves to the mollusca, though this was, primarily, 

 our chief object ; on the contrary, we severally went in for 

 anything that came to hand at the time, and so not only learnt 

 a great deal of each other's subjects, but immensely increased 

 the various records and observations. 



Most of the scenes of our last year's researches were again 

 visited, including Fairhead, Murlough, and Whitepark — where 

 we devoted a long day to the exploration of one of the famous 

 " middens," working hard with spade and sieve, and obtained 

 a large number of nice worked flints (scrapers, arrowheads, 



A 



