On a rocky eminence, situated high up oh the right bank of the Edw, called 

 the "Mount," we held our pic-nic. Afterwards J. Rankin, Esq., read his "Notes 

 on Insectivora," in which he described a class of insect feeding little animals nearly 

 allied to the bats, and chiefly represented in this country by the mole, the shrew 

 mouse, andhedgehog. These interesting little creatures are seldom seen to cross our 

 path, but are often met with' there cold and stiff as the ground beneath them, de- 

 stroyed either by the wanton hand of man or worried in sport by some straying dog 

 or cat, by whom they are seldom or never eaten, as the shrew-mouse in particular 

 possesses a most obnoxious smell, which causes it to be rejected as food by all 

 animals. But I may remark that this objection does not hold good with respect 

 to the hedgehog, for in some of the cookery books of the last century it is included 

 in the list of removes for the month of December. It is said that the epiouiean 

 gipsy is well aware of the delicacy of this animal, and that he recommends it to 

 be rolled in clay and baked on the fire till the ball shall have become brittle, when 

 on breaking it, the spines of the animal will be found adhering to the clay, and 

 the flesh within left clean and well cooked, 



Mr. Rankin proceeded to remark that all the animals of the order have nume- 

 rous conical teeth, that they differ in number in the two jaws, and very much 

 resemble those of the bat, especially in the gap which is frequently found between 

 the front teeth and the incisors. He illustrated this part of his subject by pre- 

 pared specimens of the cranium and lower jaw, and next drew our attention to 

 the formation of some of the other organs of the shrew and the mole, and their 

 peculiar habits, especially those of the mole. 



Little discussion followed the reading of this paper; but one gentleman 

 who stood by asked Mr. Rankin what became of the moles in flood time, as he 

 was not satisfied with the answer he had received from a countryman, to whom 

 he had once put the question, namely, that they got up into the Sally trees. 

 It is true, he continued, that they are sometimes seen there, but then under 

 very different circumstances, banging by their tails. Mr. Rankin soon satisfied 

 his inquirer that the buoyancy of the body and the paddle-shaped feet of the 

 mole well adapted it to swimming, and that in flood time it was able so to 

 transport itself to a place of ^ safety. Another Irish gentleman then asked Mr. 

 Rankin the reason why there are no moles in Ireland, but this, like many other 

 Irish questions did not admit of such a ready solution, and our friend of the 

 Emerald Isle departed still in the dark on the subject. 



The description of a plant new to Britain, called Muscaris comatus, the fair- 

 haired hyacinth, by Mr. B. Watkins, of Boss, was next read, and a dried 

 specimen of the plant in flower was also exhibited. The account stated that the 

 plant had been found in a wheat field on the Gillow Farm, Ross, where it is 

 supposed its seeds were sown a few years ago with foreign corn or clover. It is 

 a liliaceous plant, and may be often seen in our cottagers' gardens with the 

 starch hyacinth and common cornflag, plants which, like the plant in question, 

 are natives of the corn-fields of the south of Europe, and probably owe their 

 introduction to this country to the same accidental circumstances. The fair- 



