570 Alexander Goodman More Scientific Papers. 



drawing their nets for Salmon, and especially when using a smaller 

 mesh for Trout. I never saw any specimen at all equal in size to the 

 Shad, also A. finta, which are taken in the River Moy, of which I have 

 now before me a specimen measuring nearly twenty-four inches in 

 length ; or the so-called " Bony Horsemen" (A. finta), which in May 

 frequent the mouth of the Blackwater, in Waterford, to the length of 

 twenty inches. When visiting Kerry I often tried to ascertain whether 

 anything were known of the breeding habits of the Killarney Shad, 

 and whether it is ever found ascending from the sea. But the result of 

 my inquiries was that I could never hear of any being taken, either in 

 the River Laune, or in the salt water. They are captured in numbers, 

 and of various sizes according to the season of the year, always small, 

 up to about Herring size ; and I am now inclined to believe that these 

 small Shad are resident in the Lake of Killarney, as in some of the 

 Italian Lakes. If this surmise is correct, we have here an instance of 

 a land-locked Shad, resident and breeding in fresh water, perhaps an 

 incipient species. 



ERICA MEDITERRANEA, VAR. HIBERNICA IN ACHILL 



ISLAND. 



[JOURNAL OF BOTANY, April, 1889.] 



From a correspondent, Mr. J. R. Sheridan, I have lately received 

 some specimens of the Mediterranean Heath, flowering at the end of 

 January. This is, I believe, a very unusually early date for its flower- 

 ing. But the present has been a singularly mild winter, with scarcely 

 any frost, and, until this week, no snow in Ireland. I had myself seen 

 the Mediterranean Heath when in Achill in 1872, and Mr. Sheridan 

 has recently found two new localities at the north end of the island, 

 where, in wet ground bordering on a stream, he tells me that it attains 

 a height of three feet. I may here mention two other rare plants which 

 I found in Achill Island, viz., Eriocaulon septangulare, in a small lake 

 at north end of Achill, and Potamogeton nitens, in the stream flowing 

 from Lough Keel, on south side of the island. 



THE PARROT CROSSBILL IN IRELAND. 

 [ZOOLOGIST, May, 1889.] 



We have long been looking for the Parrot Crossbill, Loxia pityop- 

 sittacus, in Ireland, but it is only within the last few weeks that its 

 occurrence here has been fully established. From the demesne of Lord 

 Rosse, at Parsonstown, Mr. Edward Williams, of Dublin, received for 

 preservation, in January last, a bird which seemed to him heavier and 

 stronger in the bill than usual ; and I am glad to say that his suspicion 

 has proved correct. Professor Newton confirms our determination of 



