1905. 



Notes. 



43 



Tame Dragon-flies. 



The following account of the intelligence of two Dragon-flies, Diplax 

 striolata, may interest some of the readers of the Irish Naturalist. They 

 were taken in August last, by my little daughter, aged ten, and kept by 

 her in a large glass jar which she divided into two parts, separated by a 

 piece of tile about 2^ inches high. The larger space she filled with earth, 

 in which she planted Short Sedge, and placed water in the other space to 

 make the surroundings as natural as possible. Here her pets lived, and 

 after feeding them regularly for some days, with gnats from her fingers, 

 they became quite tame, and when released from the jar in the open air, 

 would fly round and round her, lighting again somewhere near, frequently 

 on herself, and seemed quite contented to be replaced in the jar. 



It was most curious and interesting to watch these usually shy insects 

 greedily devouring the gnats which their little mistress caught for them 

 each day with her net. 



J. H. Johnston. 



Park Cottage, Wexford. 



Great Shearwaters and Sooty Shearwaters in 1901. 



In the Field of 12th October, 1901, Mr. H. Becher announced that he 

 had shot four of each of these little-known species, of -which he kindly 

 presented two Great and two Sooty Shearwaters to the Dublin Museum. 

 Examples of both species are stated to have been exhibited by Mr. E. 

 Williams at the conversazione of the Dublin Naturalists' Field Club on 

 5th November, 1901, but this is the only notice of their occurrence that 

 I can find in the Irish Naturalist (vol. x., p. 253). I, therefore, give some 

 particulars from letters of Mr. Becher : — 



On 9th September, 1901, that gentleman passed, in his yacht " Zulu," 

 between Cape Clear and Mizen Head, ten or twelve Sooty Shearwaters, 

 but did not get a shot at them. There were numbers of Great Shear- 

 waters also seen, and Mr. Becher sailed into a flock of these which he 

 estimated at 200 or 300 birds. He shot four Great Shearwaters that day j 

 and on the 13th September, when a few miles off Valentia, he sailed into 

 a large flock of both species, and shot four Sooty Shearwaters. He adds 

 that there were great numbers of both sorts on the latter date between 

 the Blaskets and the Skelligs. 



I had an opportunity of examining in the Dublin Museum the four 

 bodies. One was of a female, and the others appeared to belong to male 

 birds, but the organs of reproduction were inconspicuous, so that it was 

 plainly not the breeding-season of these creatures. A third specimen in 

 the Dublin Museum was obtained ofi" Achill Island on 22nd May, 1901. 



The observations of Mr. Becher in 1892, 1899, 1900, and 1901, go to show 

 that both these oceanic species may be met with in August and 

 September off the south-west extremity of Ireland, and sometimes in 

 considerable numbers. 



R. J. USSHBR 



Cappagh, Co. Waterford. 



