58 
The Irish Naturalist. 
March, 
into og as one passes south ? The phenomenon is not an 
isolated one. It recurs again at Clare Island, where the 
Common Periwinkle is known as the px^oc^xn, while on the 
opposite coast, at Achill Sound, some four miles distant, 
it becomes the pxjkocos. Similarly, among plants the Bilberry, 
known as ppAoCAn in Dubhn and Kerry, takes on the name 
]:|\x^oc65 in Mayo. This is a problem I must leave to 
Gaelic scholars to solve. 
We are all of us familiar with the Jelly fish, which in 
the summer months often swarm in our inshore waters and 
from time to time are found stranded on our beaches. 
When dredging off Rush one day, some five or six years 
ago, a large specimen of the species Rhizostoma pulmo went 
wobbling past our boat. " What do you call that ?" I 
asked the boatman. Oh, that's the Sun Jelly. We call 
them Swalders." At Howth, again, I found the same name 
" Swalders" in use among the fishermen, while at Kings- 
town it became altered and shortened to Squalls, very large 
specimens being called " Parliament Men," why I could not 
discover, and can only surmise that it was suggested by 
their invertebrate inconsistency. Now the name Swalders is 
an old East English name for the Jelly-fish, which has been 
somehow imported into East Ireland. Sir Thomas Browne 
used it some 250 years ago in a slightly altered form in' the 
following passage : — " Stellae marinae, or Sea Stars, in great 
plenty about Yarmouth. Whether it be bred out of the 
Urticus, Squalders, or Sea Jellies, as many report, we cannot 
affirm ; but the Squalders in the middle seem to have some 
lines or first draughts not unhke." 
The true Barnacle, Lepas anatifera, is occasionally cast 
up on our shores. In September, 191 1, while exploring 
the coast from Roonah towards the Killary, I came across 
a fine bunch stranded near Roonah Lake. Two countrymen 
who happened to be close by gathering seaweed gave me 
the native name as S^^f^s. I was unable, however, to 
draw from them any views as to the nature of the animal. 
We all know the old belief associated with this pelagic cirri - 
pede and preserved in its specific name, the belief that it 
gives birth to the Barnacle Goose. A very circumstantial 
