24 The Irish Naturalist. 



sidered a separate species, with yellow elytra and dark thorax ; Coccinella 

 xi-f-unctata, the few specimens that turned up of this beetle all belonged 

 to a singular variety of colouring, in which the light hinder spots had run 

 together in pairs, forming two regular black bands across the elytra, only 

 interrupted by the suture. The type did not occur ; Coccinella obliterata, 

 on stone walls by the sea. They must have flown from a distance, as 

 there is no fir about Port Ballintrae ; Hclops pallidus, this interesting 

 species I took in some numbers by pulling up the coarse grass on the 

 sandhills in Bush Bay and shaking it. It is variable in size, and lives at 

 a depth of two or three inches below the surface. — Brockton Tomi^in, 

 Llandaff. 



A Correction. — Pieris daplidice. — The capture of this butterfly in our 

 December number was erroneously given as " this month." The insect 

 was taken in August, 1893. 



BIRDS. 

 Female Merganser assuming Male Plumage. — On the 7th 



March last I received, from Co. Galway, a Merganser, Mcrgus serratot, 

 which I at first mistook for a 3'oung male assuming adult plumage, but 

 upon dissection I was surprised to find that it was an adult female, and 

 from the condition of the ovary I think a very old, barren bird. Mr. H. 

 E. Dresser, who has examined the bird, writes : — The Merganser is a very 

 interesting specimen, and is, I should say, an old female partially 

 assuming male plumage. It is the first one in that stage of plumage I 

 have seen. — F. Coburn (in Zoologist for December). 



Snowy Owl in Mayo. — A very fine specimen of the Snowy Owl 

 {Nictea scandiaca) was shot in the vicinity of Belmullet on the 13th 

 December. The bird measures five feet to the extreme tip of wings, and 

 twenty-five inches from beak to tail ; weighing four pounds four ounces. 

 The specimen has come into the possession of Mr. J. T. O'Reilly, Carne 

 House, Belmullet, who has forwarded it to us for preservation. — 

 Wigwams & Son, Dublin. 



Chiffchaff in December. — I was greatly surprised on the 13th 

 Tecember to see a bird of this species in my garden in Rathgar, although 

 there had been severe frost a few days previous ; it evidently had little 

 effect on this individual, as it was hopping about quite as merrily as if it 

 were the middle of April instead of dreary December. — Edward 

 Wjxuams, Dublin. 



GEOLOGY. 



Irish Geology. — We learn with pleasure that Professor Cole, 

 F.G.S., has accepted an invitation by the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club 

 to give a course of lectures and practical work in Belfast during the 

 coming term. It is understood that this arrangement is the outcome of 

 the recent appointment by the Club of a committee to investigate the 

 glacial phenomena of the Belfast district, and that the lectures and 

 demonstrations will have special reference to local geology. We con- 

 gratulate Belfast on its appreciation of the claims of geology as a branch 

 of education, and on its good fortune in having secured such an able 

 exponent of the science as Professor Cole. 



High-level Gravels. — An able paper by Mr. T. Mellard Reade, 

 F.G.S., in the current (December) number of Natural Science, deals with 

 the origin of the well-known high-level fossiliferous gravels found on 

 both sides of the Irish Sea. Mr. Reade has studied the beds with some 

 care, both in Wales and Ireland, and is in favour of the " Submergence" 

 view. He has kindly consented to contribute an article upon the subject 

 to our pages. 



