1 91 8. Irish Societies. 31 



DUBLIN NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUB. 



October 27. — Excursion to Kingstown.^ — A party of twenty met 

 at Kingstown at three o'clock and proceeded to the shore at Sandy cove, 

 where favoured by a low spring tide, the President gave a short demon- 

 stration on some of the Mollusca and Crustacea abundantly represented 

 on the rocks. The members then went to Queen's Park, Monkstown, 

 where Mrs. Bennett hospitably entertained them at tea and showed a large 

 and beautifully preserved series of skulls, horns, and skins of African 

 mammals. Robert Stokes was elected into the Club at a short business 

 meeting. 



NOTES. 



BOTANY. 

 Sedum Drucei. 



Under this name, given by Dr. Graebner to the plant which in the 

 British Isles has been called S. acre, a description by the botanist named 

 was published by Mr. Druce, Bot. Exchange Club Report for 1912. In 

 Journal of Botany. August, 191 7, Mr. Praeger writes that having 

 cultivated in one border S. Drucei as collected in the West of Ireland 

 in company with Dr. Graebner, and as collected or received from various 

 places in Ireland, England, and Scotland, and a series of wild and 

 cultivated plants of S. acre from many European countries, differences 

 of even varietal rank do not exist between them. In subsequent numbers 

 of the Journal of Botany Mr. H. S. Thompson and Dr. C. H. Ostenfeld 

 of Copenhagen write confirming this view, and agreeing in regretting 

 the bestowing of specific names upon trivial variations from type. 



Notes on Birds in King^'s County. 



In reference to my note on the appearance of a Green Sandpiper 

 {Totanits ochropus) seen by me in King's Co. {Irish Nat., January, p. 14 

 supra) I have been informed by Mr. E. Rait Kerr that about eight years 

 ago one of these birds was shot in a field here in August or September ; 

 sex unknown, plumage adult. It was taken to the late Captain 

 Longworth-Dames of Greenhill, Edcndcrr^-, and was identified by him. 

 These two records are of some interest, as Mr. Ussher gives none for this 

 bird in King's Co. 



It may also be of interest to record that yesterday, January loth, I 

 heard the following birds singing here, weather very mild after hard 

 frost : — Blackbird, Song Thrush, Chaffinch, Great Tit, and Coal Tit. This 

 is the earliest record I have of the Chaffinch's song. 



Rathmoyle, Edenderry. Hei-EN M, Rait Kerr, 



