September, 1907. The Irish Naturalist. 253 



IRISH FIELD CLUB UNION. 



REPORT OF THE 



FIFTH TRIENNIAL CONFERENCE AND EXCURSION, 



HELD AT CORK, JULY iiTh to i6th, 1907. 



L— GENERAL ACCOUNT. 



BY R. IXOYD PRAEGER, 



Hon. Secretary, Irish Field Club Union. 



For the second time, the Field Clubs met for their Triennial 

 Conference in the Province of Munster, the previous occasion 

 being in 1898, when Kenmare was selected as the rendezvous. 

 It was considered that Cork would make an especially useful 

 centre for work, lying as it does on the borderland between 

 the mountainous region of the south-west, with its Lusitanian 

 types of animal and plant life, and the drier, more fertile and 

 lower eastern tract, with a different and distinct fauna and 

 flora. Furthermore, it was recognised that the Cork district, 

 though associated with the names of many distinguished 

 naturalists, was still almost a terra incognita as regards a 

 detailed knowledge of various important groups of animals and 

 plants. This being so, it is a matter for regret that the party 

 which met at Cork on July 11 was the smallest which has, 

 since the foundation of the Union, assembled for a triennial 

 field meeting. The chief cause of this was without doubt the 

 unprecedentedly wet and cold weather which prevailed 

 throughout the spring and right up to the date of the meeting, 

 and which made the prospect of long days' work in the open, 

 driving and steamer excursions, and picnic luncheons, seem 

 pre-ordained to failure. The event only proved that these 

 members of little faith in " Field Club weather " were at fault, 

 for the weather cleared on the day before the party assembled, 

 and a light drizzle on the morning of the day that Lough 

 Allua was visited was the only rain that fell during the period 



