APODA. 427 



ford Lough. November, 1846. — The largest of great size, the smallest (three 

 or four) an inch long, one of them adherent to a capsule or ovum of a 

 blackish-brown colour. September, 1847. — Several (one large adult) 

 taken among herrings brought to Belfast from Strangford Lough. 



P. sjjhiulosa, Leach (Zool. Mis., vol. ii. pi. 65). 



Belfast Bay, adherent to cod ; adhering to roof of mouth of ling in 

 Belfast market, caught at Killinchy, in October, 1846. Carlingford, 

 Stranraer, Scotland (with oysters to Belfast). 



P. Icevis, Blainville. 



A Pontobclella in my collection agrees with this species in all the de- 

 tailed characters assigned to it in the work referred to, in which the 

 description is taken fromSBlainville's in the Diet. Sci. Nat., t. 47, 1827, p. 

 243. The species differs from P. muricata and P. verrucata, as its name 

 denotes, in being smooth ; which it is all over the surface. Where the 

 specimen described by Blainville Avas procured was not known ; but it is 

 stated to have been sent to him by M. Paretto of Genoa. Mine, which 

 may be noted as 4 inches in length, was obtained alive in April, 1838, 

 either at Portpatrick or Donaghadee, by Capt. Fayrer, R. N., who com- 

 manded the mail steam-packets between these ports. This gentleman re- 

 marked at that period, when sending me the specimen, that he found it 

 in the bottom of a fisherman's boat, into which it must have been brought 

 with sea-weed, then being gathered for manure at low-water. This 

 Pontobclella gave out to the spirits in Avhich it was put for preservation a 

 beautiful scarlet colour. A specimen of P. muricata which I lately (Oct., 

 1846) received, imparted a beautiful and intense green colour to the 

 spirits in which it was placed 



Genus H^mopsis. 

 H. vorax, Johnston. 



Not uncommon in the North of Ireland, W. T. 



Genus Hirudo. 

 H. medicinalis, Linn, 



"There are also medicinal leeches* on the south side of the lake 

 [Mask]," see O'Flagherty's AVest or H-Iar Connaught, p. 19, written in 

 1684. Published in 1846 by the Irish Archspol. Soc. 



Medicinal Leech. — Novemher, 1849. — W. K. Wilde, Esq., when at Lough 

 Mask in September last, inquired about this, and was told that it had of 

 late become scarce in consequence of the draining of the lake by the canal 

 between it and Lough Corrib. It is found in pools and wells in the 

 vicinity of Lough Mask, near the canal. A woman who consulted him 

 about her child, which he ordered to be bled with leeches, said the kind 

 from the lake was far better than that at the doctor's, which was smaller 

 and sold at Is. each. In summer the leech-gatherers there sit with their 

 legs in the water, on which the creatures fasten and are thus obtained. 



* Irish, Dallog. — The leeches found here are stated to be of a good kind ; but 

 whether they are used or approved of by medical men for topical bleeding, I 

 have not ascertained. The country people in the neighbourhood use them with 

 good effect. 



