278 [Proc. B.N.r.C. 



scientific labours, but also as a means of promoting the hap- 

 piness of their members. 



The unfavourable state of the weather and the impossi- 

 bility of visiting Murlough Bay deprived the members of 

 much opportunity of adding specimens to their collections, 

 but withal some good work was accomplished. Mr. William 

 Gray made a good find. He got a finely fossiliferous slab of 

 middle Lias rock. This is a verification of Mr. Gray's dis- 

 covery of this geological formation in Ireland. Up to the 

 present it has been found nowhere else in this country. The 

 ornithologists handed in a list of thirty species of birds 

 observed, but it did not contain the names of any of our 

 rarer species. Of Lejpido'ptera only a few of the commoner 

 species were noted, but one of the members was successful in 

 finding a caterpillar of one of our rarer species, the oak egger, 

 Lasiocam'pa quercus. The botanists were more successful and 

 succeeded in finding several of our rarer and more locally distri- 

 buted plants. Among those may be mentioned the Welsh poppy 

 (Meconopsis camhrica), rose-root (Sedum Bhodiold), winter 

 green (Pyrola Tnedia), the smaller butterwort (^Pinguicula lusi- 

 tanica), the spring vetch (Vicia lathy roides), the wall pepper 

 (Sedum acre), the red campion (Lychnis diurna), the marsh 

 cinquefoil (Coma?'um palustre), the brittle bladder fern (Gyst- 

 opteris fragilis), with many species of lichens brought home 

 for identification. 



The President and Vice-President had offered prizes for 

 the best collections made during the day of plants and shells, 

 that for plants being awarded to Miss May Porter, whose 

 collection included 117 species, while the shell prize was won 

 by Mr. George Donaldson, who handed in a box containing 

 twenty species of land and marine shells. The 6-20 train 

 brought the members back to Belfast, which was reached at 

 two minutes past nine o'clock, when the members separated. 



