March, 19 14. 
The Irish Naturalist. 
53 
FIELD NOTES ON THE FOLK-LORE OF 
IRISH PLANTS AND ANIMALS. 
BY NATHANIEL COLGAN, M.R.LA. 
(Read before the DubHn Naturahsts' Field Club, nth February, 19 13.) 
Many of the papers read before this Club have been open 
to the objection of being so sohd or technical as to make 
but a feeble appeal to a large section of the members, who 
have never specialised in any particular branch of natural 
history. The present disjointed notes are intended to 
serve as a corrective. They will appeal, I hope, to even 
the most unscientific members, and will point out to them 
a line of research in which all can display their activity. 
The plant and animal lore of the peasant if studied in the 
field will be found to be of absorbing interest. Folk- 
lore, no doubt, may be sneered at by a critic who adopts 
the utilitarian standard ; but that is a standard which 
will never be accepted by this Club if I rightly understand 
its sentiments, and I would go farther and say that many 
of us will find in the very uselessness of this branch of 
knowledge, one of its greatest attractions. If, again, the 
various lines of research which we follow in the pursuit 
of knowledge for its own sake be classed in accordance with 
their difficulty and the amount and variety of the mental 
energies which their prosecution demands, then it may 
be easily shown that folk-lore by no means takes a low 
place. 
The notes I now proceed to give are almost altogether 
original in the sense that all of them have been jotted 
down in the field, and but few of them have been published. 
In my various tramps and scrambles in the Irish highlands 
I have never let slip an opportunity of "drawing" any 
likely subject I came across in the glens and on the hill- 
sides ; and by adopting an attitude of earnest discipleship, 
by sitting at the feet of- the wise men who condescended 
to instruct my ignorance, I have succeeded in gleaning 
many curious fragments of folk-lore. It is refreshing to 
enter in this way into minds stored with unwritten wisdom 
and unwisdom, links in a long chain of oral tradition binding 
together distant ages and diverse races of men. 
A 
