14 



The Irish Naturalist. 



February, 



the silence of the chief recent authorities with regard to 

 that finding (remarked on in Nature) may mean that they 

 are inchned to suspect some error in the matter. 



My own observations on the subject are confined not 

 merely to a single locality (Ballyhyland, Co. Wexford) but 

 to a single stream — so small a stream that in most of our 

 county maps it is left without a name, though Patrick 

 Kennedy in his local story, " The Banks of the Boro," 

 refers to it as " the sweet stream of Tubbergall." The 

 fact that (Enanthe crocata grows abundantly along great 

 part of its course may be held by some practical people 

 to detract a good deal from its sweetness ; but what I wish 

 to point out is that a quite contrary verdict would be given 

 (if we could consult them) by the cattle feeding on its 

 banks. 



On the 27th of May, igi8, when passing through a field 

 watered by this stream, I noticed that a rich growth of 

 Water- Drop wort, which had a few days previously formed 

 the main vegetation of the stream-bed for about 200 yards, 

 was more than half eaten down. A herd of 13 milch cows 

 (Shorthorns) were grazing in the field, and on watching for 

 about ten minutes, I saw no fewer than six of these 

 animals (one at a time) leave their grazing and march down 

 to the stream to make a substantial meal of what remained 

 of the CEnanthe. Neglecting all other aquatic and water- 

 side vegetation, the cows showed plainly that they repaired 

 to the stream for no other purpose than to eat the Hemlock 

 Water-Dropwort. 



They ate not only the leaves and flowers (with which 

 they began) but also the main stems down to within some 

 nine inches of the surface of the water, where they generally 

 left off, making, in fact, as neat a clearance as if a scythe 

 had been at work ; and I remembered that in former years, 

 seeing the QEnanthe similarly mown down in the same 

 licld, I had sup])osed that a scythe had actually been used 

 to clear the harmful plant out of the cattle's way. Evi- 

 dently, however, this was a mistake, and the cattle them- 

 selves had been (^ating the ])lant, summer after summer, 

 in the same wholesale fashion as they were doing now. 

 Yet no mysterious deaths had been the result, 



