1904. 



163 



THE DIARY OF AN IRISH NATURALIST. 



BY R. F. SCHA.RFF, PH.D. 



In the year 1843 an excellent and instructive paper appeared in 

 the Annah and Magazine of Natu7'al History " on the species of 

 Limax found in Ireland." This was one of the earliest notices 

 which have been published on the habits and distinctive 

 characters of our Slugs. As the author, the Rev. Benjamin 

 James Clarke, was an Irishman, this fact may be of additional 

 interest to the readers of the Irish Naturalist. 



Though he seems to have been a correspondent of William 

 Thompson, very little has been recorded of the life of this 

 keen observer, except that w^e gather from his paper just 

 referred to that he inhabited a place near Portarlington in the 

 Queen's Co. called " La Bergerie." 



Quite recently Mr. Clarke's diary, written in the years 1837 

 and 1838, which proves to be of considerable interest to 

 naturalists, came into the possession of our Museum. His 

 power of observation and wide knowledge, as revealed in the 

 diary, are very remarkable ; and the keenest pleasure is evinced 

 throughout the pages in noting down the facts of Nature 

 as they presented themselves to him. The animated world 

 around him seems to have been a source of intense interest to 

 him. 



On page 21 we read about the fights he observed between 

 the large larvae of dragon-flies and sticklebacks. He relates 

 how he saw one of the former fiercely attacking a fish twice 

 its own size with its mandibles, which it firmly fixed in the 

 head of its prey. Then, again, he notes the ravages caused 

 to gooseberry and currant bushes by the larvae of the sawfly 

 and gooseberry-moth, both of which left black currant bushes 

 untouched. 



A particularly interesting capture which entomologists, no 

 doubt, would wish to have verified by the actual specimen is 

 one recorded on page 21. He notes having taken a specimen 

 of the " Clifden Beauty" at dusk on the Emo Road, being 

 the first of that rare moth ever captured by him about this 

 neighbourhood. 



