22 
NOTES BY MR. J. ARKLE. 
“—~. FLOWERS IN BLOOM, SPRING 1898.—Daisies were plentiful, Jan. Ist, 
in the fields between Chester and Saltney, The almond, crocus, scilla, and 
American currant, were in bloom as early as the end of February. Black- 
thorn began to blossom April 16th, and the primrose, ground-ivy, wood- 
sorrel, anemone, orchid, and violet, were out along the Leet April 23rd. 
The hawthorn and horse-chestnut were in bloom May 7th, and lilac and 
laburnum May gth. The oak was out in leaf (May 14th) before the ash, 
and yet there was no ‘‘splash’”’ of a summer. As a matter of fact the oak, 
in this district, is nearly always—if not always—in leaf before the ash. 
Brirps.—Cuckoo heard April 23rd—two days earlier than in 1897. 
Swifts were seen May 2nd—two days earlier than in 1897. 
InsEcTts.—Glow-worms were pointed out to me by Mr Thompson, 
24, South View, on the Sealand Cop, June 24th. 


“The Distribution of Animal Life’—By Mr. W. E. SHARP, 
(Ledsham.) 

(Read before the Zoological Section.) 

This Paper dealt with the problems of the immediate origin of the 
various forms of animal life at present existing within the British Islands, or 
what is known to science as faunistic distribution, and referred to the extreme 
difficulty involved in the attempt to formulate any adequate or satisfactory 
explanation of the facts of the case. The lecturer confined his remarks 
principally to the consideration of one order of insects, the Coleoptera, and 
showed how in this group three elements might be discovered, the first 
division containing species now of northern and north-western range, whose 
origin may probably have been from an extension of North-western Europe, 
which at one time joined Scotland, Norway, and Greenland, and closed in 
the Atlantic Ocean to the north, On this hypothesis the presence of the 
vestiges of a North American element in the Irish fauna may be explained. 
The second group, containing the majority of our fauna, probably arrived 
from the eastward, and its ultimate origin possibly Siberia. This immigration 
could not have succeeded in establishing itself in England before the land 
continuity between Great Britain and Ireland must have become interrupted, 
the Irish fauna being conspicuously deficient in this group. The third group 
comprises species of extreme Southern and South-western range of dis- 
continuous distribution, and very perplexing both in its origin, age, and lines 
of progression, The age and relative sequence of these waves of immigration 
was another and much more difficult question. Here Geological factors were 
involved, and more especially the view taken of the extent, duration, and 
severity of the glacial period. The lecturer, after briefly alluding to some 
of the current theories on this subject, expressed the belief that the evidence 
at our command was not at present sufficient or reliable enough to formulate 
any theories upon, and concluded by pointing out that the accumulation and 
systematic recording of the facts of distribution was one of the most useful 
and obvious functions of any local Natural Science Society, and the only means 
by which we might ever hope to become possessed of evidence sufficient to 
support any intelligible theories of the phenomena of the present distribution 
of our fauna. 
