176 The Irish Naturalist, July, 1902. 



Breeding of small Mammals. 



In the last week in May an unusually large Brown Rat (^Ahis decumanus) 

 was killed in a garden near my house. On opening it sixteen well- 

 developed young were taken out. This number seemed to me so 

 extraordinary that I consulted all the authorities I could on the subject. 

 Bell (" British Quadrupeds," 2nd Edition, 1874, p. 314) says they produce 

 10, 12, or 14 atabirth. Lydekker('' British Mammalia," 1895, p. 197) says 

 it commonly produces " from 8 to 10 young ones at a birth, while the 

 number sometimes rises to a dozen, or even more." Oldfield Thomas, in 

 the ** Encyclopaedia Britannica," gives 10 as the highest number. I would 

 be glad to know if others have observed such a large number as sixteen 

 young from one female. 



How many young does the Lesser Shrew {Sorex minutns) produce ? 

 One taken near this last month contained eight young. There are 

 still many points to be settled in the life-histories of our commonest 

 mammals, and questions such as the above open up fields for original 

 investigation which would well repay time and trouble. 



Robert Patterson. 



Belfast. 



GEOLOGY. 



Notes on Blown Sand at Whitepark. 



On the occasion of the Easter visit of some members of the B.N.F.C. 

 to Whitepark Bay, Co. Antrim, we noticed a very curious and beautiful 

 process going on among some of the gullies in the dunes. Across the 

 miniature canons, formed by a rivulet, a breeze was blowing, which 

 deposited fine dry sand near the top of the declivity. This dry sand 

 trickled down the hill, sometimes as oil might have done, in little flat 

 streams, sometimes like drops of water on a window-pane during a 

 shower. The amount of sand thus deposited was very considerable, and 

 there was a perceptible growth in the " talus" of sand at the foot of each 

 slope in the course of an hour. The talus formations were very prett}', 

 perfect minatures of mountain scenery being formed. Among the other 

 details noticed was the rapid filling up of the wind-ripples and raindrop 

 marks formed on the same morning, showing how many similar mark- 

 ings may well have been preserved in our ancient sandstones. When- 

 ever a streamlet of sand came to one of the little cliffs, it fell over in 

 what was described by a member as a ''dry waterfall," blown up like 

 spray by an eddy in the wind, or falling steadily like a tiny Niagara. 

 The little sand canons of Whitepark are already well known for their 

 analogy to the giant examples of their kind at Colorado. 



AlyEC WlI^SON, 



Newtownbreda-, Co. Down. 



