228 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



during the warm weather. I have, of course, 

 observed exceptions to this rule, but it appears to 

 be a general one in England ( IIS ). Fruticicola fitsca, 

 which seems a species of curious habits, and often 

 difficult to find in localities where it is known to 

 occur, is another very thin-shelled but very hardy 

 • species, as shown by the interesting observations of 

 Chas. Ashford ( 19 ). The others, Hyalinia, Chilotrema, 

 Fruticicola, etc., are also quite hardy ; and Hyalinia 

 nitiiula, Fruticicola Iiispida, Patula rotundata, etc., 

 may be seen moving about in severe weather. At 

 the same time they are rather capricious. I have 

 frequently found Hyalinia nitiiula buried to a depth 

 of several inches in the earth under stones in frosty 

 weather, and W. E. Collinge has found other Hya- 

 linia, Fruticicola ru/escens, F. hispida, Patula 

 rotundata and Buliminus in similar situations ( 20 ). 

 Cyclostoma, a genus which is certainly not charac- 



teristic of so northerly a country as England, 

 seems tender and particularly liable to be killed 

 by severe frosts, despite its thick shell and oper- 

 culum. It also undergoes, as a rule, a pronounced 

 aestivation — during which period I have noticed 

 it buried in the earth — which is so much more 

 marked in hotter climates. In some places (e.g., 

 Kent, fide Mr. Bowell) Tachea asstivates in July or 

 August, but this phenomenon does not seem to 

 occur in Herefordshire. The whole question 

 of hibernation appears to depend, to a large 

 extent, on the individual peculiarity of species 

 and individuals ; for instance, on December 22nd, 

 3896, Pupa umbilicata was moving freely, while 

 Fruticicola ru/escens— more tender than Hyalinia — 

 was hibernating, though only mildly, and under 

 stones ( 21 ). 



[To be continual.) 



NATURE NOTES FROM IRELAND. 

 By John H. Barbour. 



'TPHE few notes which follow are the results of 

 more or less random observations in 1897, 

 and the plants referred to were seen in this district 

 within a radius of not more than about fifteen miles, 

 with the exception of Hieracium. Those on the 

 animals were limited similarly, except in the case of 

 the egg of the goose, which was seen in South Ireland. 



Primroses (Primula vulgaris) were in flower during 

 the second week of January. A lark was also seen 

 in that month. Crocuses were in full bloom in a 

 garden in first week of February. Rose bushes and 

 hawthorn (Ciataegus oxyacantha) in full leaf-bud, 

 coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) in flower in second 

 week of the same month. On February 20th t 

 cuckoopint (Arum maculatum) in full leaf, wild 

 geranium, Cape jasmine, and flowering currant in 

 flower. February 26th, ground-ivy, purple dead- 

 nettle (Lamium purpurcum) in flower, and hawthorn 

 in full leaf. February 27th, sweet briar in full 

 leaf, gooseberry leaves bursting, and hazel (Corylus 

 avellana) in flower. 



March 1st, speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys) in 

 flower, marsh-mallow (Caitha palustris) in flower, 

 and ash tree in full leaf-bud. March 7th, wood- 

 bine and elder in leaf. Frog-spawn seen on that 

 day, as were also swifts. March 28th, sycamore 

 bursting into leaf, and on 25th of that month a 

 thrush's nest with three eggs in it was noticed in 

 this district. 



C 8 ) Cf. J. F. Whiteaves, " List of Mollusca of Oxfordshire," 

 Ashmolean Soc. (1857), p. 6 ; W. E. Collinge, in " Zoologist " 

 (3) xiv. p.467; S.S. Pearce, ibid (3) v. p. 364; B. G. Jeffreys, 

 be, i. p. 156. Whiteaves thinks that the large number of 

 empty shells found in summtr is due to the fact that " from 

 the very large aperture and the extreme tenuity of the shell, 

 it is often attacked by ants and other insects." 



( I9 ) Quart. Joutn. Conch, i. p. rbo ; quoted by R. Rimmer, 

 L.F.W. Shells (1880), p. 131. E. W. Swanton (Nat. Journ., 



On November 28th, borage was still in flower, 

 and ripe red currants, I heard, were still to be 

 had in a garden near here. December 4th, 

 dead nettle (Lamium purpureum) yet flowered, 

 and laburnum was well in leaf-bud. During the 

 week ending December iSth, a butterfly was seen. 

 At the Giant's Causeway (Portrush), in June, 

 I saw a rather peculiar Hieracium as regards 

 flowering. On one capitellum was the abnormal 

 condition of a flower, being partly open and partly 

 closed at the same time ; exactly one half of the 

 flowerets were widely expanded and open, and the 

 other half tightly closed. Diagrammatically, it 

 might be represented by the accompanying lines. 



It was about mid-day when noticed, 

 and so it could not have been due to 

 evening tendency to closure. More- 

 over, being in a fully open spot, no 

 trees or shade of any kind being 

 near, it could not have been due to 

 the direct heliotropic influence of 

 light. When in Tipperary, in August, 

 a peculiarly malformed egg laid by a goose in the 

 district I was in, was shown to me. It was fairly 

 large, and is best described by simply saying that 

 it was very like, in shape, to that of the shell 

 of a heart-shaped sea-urchin. Where the indenta- 

 tions were, it seemed thickened, rough and warty. 

 Bangor, Co. Down, Ireland. 



1897, p. 18), says it is not inconvenienced by excessive heat 

 or cold. 



(20) "Naturalist" (iSgi), p. 75; " Conchologist " ii. (r892), 

 p. 29, quoted by A. H. Cooke, op. cit., p. 41. 



( 21 ) E. W. Swanton (Nat. Journ., 1897, p. 17), rinds that 

 many species move about readily in cold weather, and is of 

 opinion that " very few are killed by frost, even in the 

 severest weather." Fruticicola cantiana may be seen crawling 

 about in the severest weather. 



