44 Alexander Goodman More. |~1854 



landed on two small stony islets, whose chief attraction 

 was Arundo stricta just budding", and Lathyrus palustris, 

 of which Mr. R. was the discoverer some time since. Here, 

 too, we found Wild Ducks, Black-headed Gulls breeding, 

 Terns recently arrived, Dunlin and Sandpiper nesting. Both 

 the latter favoured us with their quavering songs ; that of 

 the Dunlin is very remarkable, and quite accounts for its 

 name of Purre. Cormorants and Lesser Black-backed Gull 

 were also seen in the distance. Landing on the Deer's 

 Island when near home, Mr. R. was not long in turning 

 up a fine beetle in the shape of Carabus clathratus,* which 

 he had previously mentioned as one of the rarities of the 

 place. Found also nest of Reed Bunting, with four eggs 

 hard sat, as was also the case with those of the Sandpiper 

 we had taken from the other island." 



Besides botany and birds, Loughgall afforded pike- 

 fishing. One day he had a curious experience, losing a 

 fine fish of 5 or 6 Ibs. through " the single hook of the 

 gorge having fixed itself, when in the pike's stomach, deep 

 into an eel which was there undergoing digestion, so that 

 when the fish was played this eel kept gradually emerging 

 from his throat again, till at last, just as we got him along 

 side, the last extremity was drawn out, and pikey escaped/' 

 The eel, he adds, must have been 2 feet long, and the pike 

 had been played with this singular tug-rope for as long as 

 a quarter of an hour. 



On May 2gth he had an inopportune attack of the 

 chicken-pox. It was the day he had planned to set out 

 with Mr. Robinson for the small island on the northern 

 side of Lough Neagh, where the very rare Carex buxbaumii 

 (found nowhere else in the British Isles) had been dis- 

 covered twenty years previously by Dr. Moore. Mr. 

 Robinson proceeded on the " Carex trip " alone, but on 

 June 2nd " came over to tell me that he had been to Toom 

 to search for Carex buxbaumii, but unsuccessfully, proba- 



* This note in Mr. More's journal seems to be the only preserved record of 

 Mr. Robinson's capture of Carabus clathratus on Lough Neagh, perhaps its 

 earliest discovery in the east of Ireland. Down to a much later date than 1854 

 it was supposed to be confined to the west, though this is now known not to be 

 the case. See " Irish Naturalist," 1896, pp. 63, 191, 273. 



