1S96.] ^^rE^T>.—^The Earthivorms of Ireland. 73 



in colour from white and cream to yellow, red, green, and 

 dirty brown, and from a quarter of an inch to three or four 

 inches in length, generally no larger round than a thread. 

 They may be sent in wide mouthed bottles or tins with damp 

 moss, but should not be packed in earth, as they are too 

 delicate to endure the battering which results from their 

 transit when so dispatched. If the specimens are decidedly 

 aquatic, the moss may be well saturated with water when 

 a well corked bottle is used. Here is an entirely new field 

 for working naturalists, and one may reasonably hope that 

 the present 3^ear will add many interesting species to the 

 Irish fauna. 



OBITUARY. 



George Edward Dobson, m.d., f.r.s. 

 We regret that pressure on our space has so long delayed reference to 

 the death of this distinguished zoologist of Irish birth, who passed away 

 on November 26tli, 1895, at the age of fifty-one. After an exceptionally 

 brilliant course in arts, natural science, and medicine at Trinity College, 

 Dublin, he entered the Army Medical Service in 1868, and after twenty 

 years' activity, mostly spent in India, was obliged to retire on account of 

 ill-health, with the rank of Surgeon-Major. He was the highest British 

 authority on the small Mammals : — Rodents, Insectivores, and Bats 

 In 1876 he published a monograph of the Asiatic Cheiroptera, and two 

 years later the British Museum Catalogue of that order. He projected 

 a magnificent monograph of the Insectivora in which anatomical and 

 systematic studies were to be combined, but, to the great loss of science, 

 only the first two parts ever appeared (in 1882-3). Some years ago he 

 presented some of his most valuable type specimens of Insectivores and 

 Bats to the Dublin Museum. 



THE BOTANICAL SUB-DIVISION OF IRELAND. 



Mr. Praeger wishes it known that he has retained the block from 

 which the map of Ireland divided into vice-counties was printed in our 

 last issue, as it may be useful to naturalists working out the distribution 

 of plants or animals in Ireland : and he will be glad to arrange for 

 supplying any number of copies to those desiring them. 



