191 3- Notes. 121 
Aubrctia ; and {d) blue forget-me-not : One comes from (t) a gooseberry 
bush with about a half load of honey ; one visited also a few blossoms 
of (/) yellow Alyssum. They did not visit these in any particular order, 
all showed a preference for forget-me-not, which seemed to yield nothing. 
" Bees do nothing invariably." 
Alex. H. Delap. 
Valentia, Co. Kerry. 
A " Slow -Worm " near Ballyshannon. 
This day week a man found on the bank of the River Erne close to the 
town of Ballyshannon, a hve specimen of the " Bhndworm " {Anguis 
fragilis). It was in long grass close to the river bank. The man thought 
it was a snake, and killed it ; it was shown to me as such, when I recognised 
it as the above. This is the first time such was observed, and it appears 
to be rare in Ireland (if ever observed before), though common enough 
in England. 
H. Allingham. 
Ballyshannon. 
[The Slow-worm is not regarded as indigenous in Ireland, and as 
specimens are often kept in vivaria, Mr. Allingham' s specimen was, in all 
probability, introduced. — Ed.] 
Snakes introduced into County Down. 
The note on " Adders and Toads in Co. Down," in the Irish Naturalist 
for April, reminds me of an item in " The Book of Days," by R. Chambers, 
published in 1863. Under the date of March the seventeenth is the cir- 
cumstantial account which I quote in full. Perhaps this is the same 
experiment as that mentioned by Dr. Bryce, though neither adders nor 
toads appear. 
W. E. Praeger. 
Kalamazoo College, Michigan. 
"In 1 83 1, Mr. James Cleland, an Irish gentleman, being curious to 
ascertain whether the climate or soil of Ireland was naturally destructive 
to the serpent tribe, purchased half-a-dozen of the common harmless 
English snake {Matrix torquata), in Covent Garden market in London. 
Bringing them to Ireland, he turned them out in his garden at Rath-gael, 
in the County of Down ; and in a week afterwards one of them was killed 
at Milecross, about three miles distant. The persons into whose hands 
this strange monster fell, had not the slightest suspicion that it was a 
snake, but, considering it a curious kind of eel, they took it to Dr. J. L. 
Drummond, a celebrated Irish naturalist, who at once pronounced the 
animal to be a reptile and not a fish. The idea of a ' rale living sarpint ' 
having been killed within a short distance of the very burial place of St. 
Patrick, caused an extraordinary sensation of alarm among the country 
