■228 Miscellaneous. 



being more prominent in some species than in others, that the beau- 

 tit'ul appearance of Bat's liair depended. The scales might be pro- 

 cured either by scraping the hair with a knife in a direction from the 

 apex towards the root, or more easily by pressing them between 

 glasses previously moistened by the breath. Many of them ap- 

 peared to terminate in a quill, like that observed on the butterfly's 

 scale ; some few were flat, whilst others were curved, so as to fit the 

 shaft of the hair, and presented a serrated edge. The scales were 

 absent near the bulb, but abounded in all parts of the shaft situated 

 above the skin ; and when removed from many of the larger hairs, 

 the fibrous nature of the shaft and its cellular interior were well dis- 

 played. He spoke of the hair of an Indian Bat, of which a small 

 portion had been given him by Mr. Powell, in which, without any 

 preparation, the scales could be beautifully seen, both detached and 

 still adherent to the shaft ; and he was led, from repeated observation, 

 to consider a Bat's hair as composed of a shaft invested with scales, 

 which are developed to a greater or less degree, and vary in the mode 

 of their arrangement in the different species of these animals ; and 

 concluded by stating that Bats resembled quadrupeds principally in 

 their mode of reproduction, and birds in their mode of progression, 

 but resembled both in the structure of their hair. 



Some discussion followed the reading of the paper, in which the 

 President and others took a part. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



CycJostoma elegans. Lam., an Irish Shell. — In my catalogue of the 

 Land and Freshwater MoUusca of Ireland, published in the 6th vol. 

 of the ' Annals,' it is considered that there are not sufficient data for 

 ranking Cyclostoma elegans with our indigenous species. I have lately 

 seen a number of specimens of this shell, and am now enabled to an- 

 nounce it as such, although not so satisfactorily as could be wished. 

 These were found by Mrs. W. J. Hancock washed up by the tide 

 upon the strand at Mullaghmore, near Bundoran, on the western 

 coast. Whether the Cyclostoma tenants the neighbouring sand-hills, 

 or is brought from a distance by rivers to the ocean and then cast 

 upon the beach where the examples here mentioned were obtained, 

 is yet to be learned. Fully a hundred of them were collected in 

 one day. 



In reference to a Cyclostoma which Dr. Turton stated had been 

 found in the west of Ireland, I troubled Mr. JeflFreys with some 

 queries, which were replied to as follows, in a letter dated Swansea, 

 Aug. 30, 1841 : — "The specimen of Cyclostoma pi-oductum (Turton) 

 which I received from Mr. Clark as forming j)art of the late Dr. Tur- 

 ton's collection is well figured in his ' Manual,' but it does not agree 

 with the figure or descrij)tion of C. sulcatum of Draparnaud, to which 

 Dr. Turton doubtfully referred it. I have no doubt that it is an 

 exotic shell, and that Mr. Gray's account of it (in his edition of Tur- 

 ton's Manual) is correct." — Wm. Thompson, 



Belfast, Sept. 18 H. 



