OBSERVATIONS IN IRELAND. 1B3 



At the butcher's with whom I deal (Mr. Steabbens of the Market 

 Cross), who has a large shop, the Wasps were unusually plentiful. 

 They were said especially to come to the newly cut meat as, for 

 instance, to the freshly cut end of a leg of mutton. They had not 

 been observed to show any particular preference for liver, but sheeps' 

 hearts especially attracted them. In reply to my enquiry whether 

 they merely sucked the juices, or carried off pieces of the meat, the 

 reply was, " Oh, pieces." They were not considered to have lessened 

 amount of flies, certainly not of blow-flies. — Ed. 



IRELAND. 



Kylemore Castle Gardens, Kylemore, Co. Galway. — On the 5th of 

 October, Mr. W. Farmer, writing from the above address regarding 

 the presence of Wasps in the above district during the past summer, 

 mentioned: — " W^asps have been unusually plentiful here this year, 

 but as a rule they are very scarce, causing but little damage to fruit 

 crops, and although they have been unusually plentiful this year, they 

 cannot be called a pest, attacking only damaged Plums, over-ripe 

 Gooseberries, &c. I know of only two nests, but as they have been in 

 no way troublesome, I have not looked particularly for them. 



"The wet boggy nature of this district, and the heavy average 

 rainfall we have here, no doubt keep the Wasps very scai'ce here." 



From the Connemara Basket Industry, Letttrfrack, Co. Galway, a 

 locality very near the above mentioned. Miss Sturge replied to my 

 enquiries as to Wasp appearances, on the 22nd of September, as 

 follows : — " With regard to the question of Wasps, we have had very 

 few this summer here, for there is no fruit in Connemara, and the 

 winds do not suit the Wasps very well." Miss Sturge also mentioned 

 that about two miles off, where there was a large garden, and more 

 shelter and cover for the Wasps, and also more trees, she had seen a 

 number of Wasps' nests in the ground. " Here," Miss Sturge 

 remarked, "I am on the bog-land, unsurrounded by trees, and without 

 anything for Wasps to feed on." 



A few Continental observations of Wasp presence, 



NETHERLANDS. 



State Agricultural College, Wageningen. On the 20th of October, 

 Dr. J. Ritzema Bos, Professor at the State Agricultural College, was 

 good enough to tell me, in reply to my enquiries, that: — "Wasps 

 were also very inconveniently prevalent in the Netherlands, and also 

 in Germany, at least in the Harz, where we were in August. 



