2^2 The Irish Naturalist. 



Mergansers on a small lake overlooked from the high road in 

 Co. Sligo. They remained unconcerned when I stopped my 

 car and gazed at them within a hundred yards. 



The Smkw has been obtained at Knockdrin, Westmeath, in 

 Mr. I^evinge's memory, fully half-a-dozen times. A fine adult 

 male, shot there, is in the Christian Brothers' Museum at Mul- 

 lingar. A female Smew, shot at Granston Manor, is preserved 

 there, and Lord Castletown says that another was shot there. 



The following specimens of marine species obtained on lyough 

 Derg and the Shannon, are in the interesting local collection 

 of Mr. Anthony Parker, at Castle Lough : — A Greenshank, in 

 winter plumage; Great Northern Diver, immature; Razor- 

 bill; Long- tailed Duck, immature; Scaup Duck, Great Black- 

 backed Gull assuming mature plumage; Storm-Petrel (all 

 from Lough Derg), and a Pomatorrhine Skua assuming mature 

 plumage, the two central tail feathers two inches longer than 

 the others, and partly turned on edge, shot on the Shannon 

 above Portumna. 



THE EARTHWORMS OF IRELAND. 



BY RKV. HIIvDBRIC FRIKND, F.I..S. 



( Continued from page 241 . ) 



Our study on the present occasion demands a somewhat 

 detailed treatment, as it is the first time it has ever been 

 attempted in Great Britain. In my last communication to 

 this Magazine, I ventured to treat of those worms whose 

 principal habitat is the trunks of decaying trees, and vegeta- 

 ble debris. I have in the present paper to deal with a totally 

 different genus, whose haunts are aquatic. All those worms 

 which properly come within our purview on the present oc- 

 casion belong to the genus Allurus. There are other semi- 

 aquatic worms in Great Britain, but their afiinities with the 

 LumbricidcB, or terrestrial annelids, are remote, and they 

 should be treated rather in connection with the aquatic 

 Oligochaetes, than with the earthworms. There is a wide gulf 

 between the Enchytrseids and Allurus, though their habitats 

 are very similar. 



