230 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



steam, the poor bogtrotter no longer basking in the snn, but 

 condemned to the coal-pit, its gloomy daily life and awful 

 final catastrophes ? 1 believe that the absence of coal in 

 Ireland, and the general inaptitude of the people for regular 

 and monotonous labour, and not legislative wrongs, are the 

 real reasons why England has been able to distance her in 

 the race for wealth and power ; but I also believe that the 

 Irishman is not without compensation in his poverty : his 

 labour, if not well paid, is at least healthful, and performed 

 under the blessed sunshine, not in a crowded factory or pes- 

 tilential mine ; God has given him a cheerful temperament, 

 and he has his ancient faith, a faith which to him is no mere 

 belief, but a reality, and which influences his daily life and 

 thoughts to a degree it would be well for Protestant England, 

 with, as she thinks, her purer creed, to estimate at its true 

 value. Excuse this digression, Mr. Editor, and I promise to 

 be more entomological on the other side of the Shannon. 



The w^estern portion of Gal way, known as Connemara, 

 I have only visited in search of the picturesque. Nearly the 

 whole district, which is larger than many English counties, 

 is in a state of nature, and, I doubt not, will some day pro- 

 duce a rich harvest of novelties to Science. I know of no 

 equally promising hunting-ground in the British Islands, but 

 the extreme humidity of the climate is a drawback to its 

 comfortable exploration. 



The localities in which Zygana nubigena occurs are the 

 barren terraces of limestone which form the surface of wide 

 districts in South-western Galway and Clare. Trees and 

 even bushes are absent, and the vegetation is merely what 

 springs from the cracks and fissures of the rocky pavement; 

 yet, strange to say, these stony plains are everywhere divided 

 into sections by carefully-built walls, the stones composing 

 which are frequently of enormous size, and must have re- 

 quired great labour to pile up : they are the memorials of a 

 time which has passed away, when a very numerous popula- 

 tion existed here, and the land was divided and subdivided 

 until life could not be sustained on the small holdings. 

 Wholesale emigration to America has depopulated this part 

 of the country ; and although a return of the old state of 

 things is not to be desired, there is something very melan- 

 choly in coming on the ruined homes of this extinct people. 



