22 Dr. H. L. StenHxrt on 



now found nesting in at least seventeen counties ; the shoveler ; 

 the scoter, only known as a winter visitant till a few years ago, 

 when its nest was discovered in Ulster, where it has since 

 regularly bred ; the red-necked phalarope, and the sandwich tern. 

 Some of the rare stragglers or occasional wanderers to our island 

 were alluded to, such as the waxwing, serin, crossbill, snow-finch, 

 shore-lark, Canadian crane, pink-footed goose, American blue- 

 winged teal, and Wilson's petrel. The latest Irish ornithological 

 discovery was that ot the breeding of the fulmar petrel in the 

 West of Ireland by Mr. Ussher last year. As the spread of this 

 bird's nesting haunts on the West of Scotland has been observed 

 of late, this invasion of Ireland was not surprising, and Mr. Foster 

 concluded by saying that it was by no means unreasonable to 

 assume that in the course of a few years the inclusion of the 

 fulmar as a breeding species on some of our suitable Northern 

 cliffs would reward the careful scrutiny of our ornithologists. 



THE GROWTH OF PUBLIC OPINION, 

 PSYCHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED." 



By Dr. H. L. Stewart, M.A. 



(Abstract.) 



Dr. Stewart, in the course of an interesting lecture, said it 

 was the veriest commonplace that public opinion ruled us all. 

 In countless ways we did obeisance to it, and we found it a 

 somewhat capricious and exacting sovereign, quick to take offence, 

 difficult to placate with apologies, and rather insistent that the 



