658 REPORT— 1902. 



This species, though white, has well-developed paired piginent-spots on the head, 

 each with two ocelli. It is known to inhabit North America, Norway, and South 

 Germany. 



Smyntliivrus coecus, Tullberg, is a very interesting blind species from the 

 3Iitchel3town Cave. It has been found also in an old quarry-tunnel near Edin- 

 burgh, and in mould in Northern Europe. 



It seems that the only Irish cave-insect that can at all probably be considered 

 blind and degenerate as the result of life in the darkness is Heteromurus mar- 

 ffaritatics, which is, perhaps, the modified descendant of H. nitidus. If so, the 

 form must have been independently developed in the different caves it inhabits. 



Such insects as Smynthurus coecus and Pseudosinella cavernarwm are 

 evidently very ancient species that have become almost exterminated in the 

 upper world, but are able to hold their ground in the caves. It has lately been 

 suggested by Verhoeff that cave-faunas, as a whole, are survivals, rather than 

 special modifications. Certainly the Irish cave-fauna, so far as it has yet been 

 investigated, aftbrds support to this view. But the richer fauna of the Continental 

 caves must probably be, in part at least, due to modification. It would appear 

 that the origin of cave-faunas is a more complex question than is usually 

 imagined. 



8, On the Significance of the Embryonic Cell. By Professor C. S. Minot. 



9. The Bird-faana of Ireland as affected hy its Geograjjhy. 

 By R. J. USSHER. 



The position of Ireland being remote from other countries, its maritime coun- 

 ties chiefly mountainous, its interior containing many lakes, and three-fourths of 

 its area being under grass or moor, coupled with the smallness of its manufac- 

 turing districts and the absence of persecution of birds except as game, the result 

 is that species breed numerously and extensively here as compared with England ; 

 for example, Stonechat, Dipper, Golden-crested Wren, Grey Wagtail, Goldfinch, 

 Siskin, Twite, Lesser Redpoll, Corn Bunting, Chough, Magpie, Hooded Crow, 

 Peregrine Falcon, lied-breasted Merganser, Rock Dove, Golden Plover, Wood- 

 cock, Common Snipe, Dunlin, Curlew, Arctic Tern, Little Tern, Common Gull, 

 Great Black-backed Gull, Black Guillemot, Storm Petrel, and Manx Shearwater. 



Among the winter visitors, too, are many wildfowl, Swans, Geese, Ducks of 

 both groups, which resort to the estuaries of the north and west, to desolate 

 moors, and to lakes and islands in prodigious numbers. LitnicolfS, as the Turn- 

 stone, Purple Sandpiper, Sanderling, Greenshank, and Bar-tailed Godwit, and the 

 Great Northern Diver linger on into May, or even through the summer, on the 

 north and west coasts. 



Other species which breed in Britain are absent from or limited in Ireland. 

 Among the absent species are the Nightingale, Dartford Warbler, Reed Warbler, 

 ilarsh Warbler, Bearded Titmouse, Crested Titmouse, Nuthatch, Tree Pipit, 

 Cirl Bunting, Tawny Owl, Capercaillie, Black Grouse, Ptarmigan, Red-legged 

 Partridge. 



The following do not breed in Ireland, being rare occasional visitants or scarce 

 migrants r — ^Lesser VVhitethroat, Red-backed Shrike, Pied Flycatcher, Wryneck, 

 Woodpecks (all the British species), Common Buzzard, Hobby, Eider Duck, 

 Turtle Dove, Stone Curlew, Ruff, Great Skua, Richardson's Skua,"Fulnar. 



Eight birds have a restricted breeding range in Ireland, viz., Whinchat, Redstart, 

 Garden Warbler, AVood Wren, Yellow AYagtaiJ, Tree Sparrow, Jay, Stock Dove. 



Among the occasional visitants the Bi-itish list contains a large number that 

 have never been recorded from Ireland. 



The result is that the Irish list of birds contains much fewer species than those 

 of Great Britain. 



The Common Buzzard, the Bittern, and the Capercaillie have been exterminated 



