Dublin Natural-History Society, 



6001 



Professor Harvey read a paper on a new form of fibro-cellular tissue which he had 

 discovered in an Al<;a from the Reef of Florida. 



Professor Kinahan read a paper on the unusual character of the present season. 



Mr. Bailey exhibited a fine pair of the great Goliath beetle, and also a Longicorn 

 taken from timber in the Crimea. 



The thanks of the members were given to Mr. Bailey. 



Mr. Edwin Birchall exhil)iled a collection of Lepidoptera taken on the Swiss Alps. 



The Director of the Museum exhibited some rare Mollusca, collected by Dr. Har- 

 vey ; among iheni the fine orange cowry, ihe rare Cyprsea umbilicata, C. Scottii, and 

 the pretty Trigonia pectinata, the sole living representative of an extensive genus of 

 fossil shells. 



Visitors having withdrawn, the following were, after ballot, duly elected as ordi- 

 nary members, — T. M. Dolan, A. H. Hamilton, E. J. Montgomery, J. H. Nicholson, 

 and E. J. Smyth: as corresponding member, — 0. Spence Bate, F.L.S., of Plymouth. 



Dublin Natural-History Society. 

 Friday, February 5, 1858. — The President in the Chair. 



Mr. W. Andrews, Hon. Secretary, read a note on the capture of the mute swan in 

 Dundalk Bay, already communicated to the ' Zoologist' by Lord Clermont. 



Dr. Kinahan read the following 



Notes on the Subaqueous Habits of the Water Ouzel. 



" During the years 1849 and 1850, having nearly daily occasion to frequent 

 that part of the river Dodder which passes through the romantic mountaiu glens of 

 Glenismael and Castlekelly, the great abundance there of the water ouzel, or, as the 

 peasantry there call it, kingfisher, induced me to study its habits somewhat particularly. 

 I have repeatedly seen them rise to the surface to obtain air, which they do exactly 

 like a grebe, merely raising the tip of the bill out of the water. The bird has several 

 modes of diving. When seeking food it generally goes down, like most clivers, head 

 foremost, in an oblique direction, or else walks deliberately in from the shallow edge 

 of the pool, the head bent down and the knees (tarsal articulation) crouched. When 

 seeking refuge, however, it sometimes sinks like a stone, exactly as the great northern 

 diver {Colymbus glacialis) has been observed to do,— that is, gradually, without any 

 apparent exertion, sometimes in the midst of its most rapid flight dropping down 

 suddenly into the water like a plummet. Its course is indifferently with or across the 

 stream, rarely against it. It often remains under water totally submerged for fifty 

 seconds and upwards, and during that time will proceed from 10 to 20 yards : when it 

 comes out the water may be seen running rapidly off its plumage. It swims with 

 great rapidity, and appears to rejoice in the water, as its true element, hardly ever 

 alighting directly on a rock, but even after its longest flight splashing slap into the 

 water, at the base of the stone selected as a resting-place, and then scrambling to the 

 summit of this. In its motions in the water it more closely resembles the jackass 

 penguin than any other aciuatic bird I have had an opportunity of studying: like that 

 XVI. u 



