PROCEEDINGS of societies. 
43 
DUBLIN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, NOVEMBER 23rd, 1856. 
Robert Caldwell, Esq., M.R.I.A., in the chair. 
The minutes of the last preceding meeting and other preliminary business having 
been disposed of, 
Mr. Andrews, honorary secretary, was called on for the annual report, which he 
proceeded to read as follows :— 
“ Gentlemen —We have again the pleasure of submitting to you the annual 
transactions of the Society, and to report its steady and favour^Jde progress to this 
the seventeenth year of its proceedings. It has hitherto been invariably the practice 
to lay before the members abstracts in detail of the papers and discussions on the 
several branches of the natural sciences that had occupied each evening of the monthly 
meetings throughout the session; but these proceedings have been so very fully 
given in the journal of the ‘ Natural History Review,’ which publication affords a 
secure record of such transactions, that it will only now be necessary to enumerate 
the subjects brought forward during the session of 1854-55 :— 4 Notices of some 
rare Crustacea obtained on the West Coast’—communicated by Mr. Andrews, hono¬ 
rary secretary. 4 On the Coleoptera infesting Granaries’—James Haugbton, jun., 
Esq. 4 On a digitate variety of Botrychium Lunaria, with observations on the forms 
of other ferns, noting a new Irish habitat of Lophodium Spinosum’—Dr. Kinahan. 
‘ Remarks on the bones of animals, and of some extinct species, found in a crannog or 
fortified entrenchment, at Dunshaughlin ’—communicated by Mr. Wakeman. 4 On 
Pectunculus Glycymeris, and on the local range of Molluscous animals traced with 
the dredge ’—Dr. Earran. 4 Remarks on the soundings off the south-west coast, and 
on an addition to the Fauna of Ireland, 44 Eunice tubicola” ’—Mr. Andrews. ‘ On 
a very fine specimen of the head and horns of the red deer, taken from an excava¬ 
tion in the bed of the river Boyne’—communicated by Mr. Trouton, of Drogheda. 
4 Remarks on the Serrani and Percidse, and on an addition to the ichthyology 
of Ireland, “ Polyprion Cernium” ’—Mr. Andrews. 4 On the capture of Larus 
Islandicus, at Kenmare,’ by Dr. George Gray Creighton. 4 Notes on the Ornitho¬ 
logy of the south-west coast, and on the occurrence of the greater shearwater, 
Puffinus major ; with remarks on the characteristics ofLarus Bonapartii and Larus 
ridibundus ’—Mr. Andrews. 4 On Ianthina communis, collected with other mol- 
lusca on the west coast, with notes on the peculiar habits of Ianthina’—Mr. Hopkins. 
4 Continuation of Mr. Wakeman’s paper on the remains of animals, war implements, 
&c., found at Dunshaughlin.’ 4 On the habits and varieties of some of the Laridee, 
and of the characters of Irish specimens of Larus ridibundus,’ by Mr. Watters. 4 On 
the advantage to botany of local lists and notes with reference to the algae of the 
east coast of Ireland ’—Gilbert Sanders, Esq. 4 Remarks on some rare algae, south¬ 
west coast ’—Mr. Andrews. 4 On the effects of the severe frost of the winter of 1855 
on plants in the neighbourhood of Sligo,’ by the Right Hon. John Wynne. ‘Re¬ 
marks on the plantations of the Hazlewood Estate, Sligo ; and on pines and trees 
best calculated for exposed plantations’—Mr. Andrews. 4 Notices on the par and 
on the salmon fry, and on the result of the experiments at the Stormontfield ponds, 
banks of the Tay ’—Mr. Andrews. 4 Records of the breeding of the Scaup duck in 
Kerry, and on the occurrence in inland lakes in the summer months of the red¬ 
breasted Merganser M. serrator, and of the recent occurrences in several localities 
of the turtle dove—Columba turtur.’ These formed the principal features of the 
proceedings of the past session. Some donations of interest have been added to the 
collection, the chief being specimens of the Crustacea, from the Dublin coast, and 
from the west coast of Ireland, presented by Dr. Kinahan and Mr. Andrews ; aqd 
also by the latter, a well-preserved specimen of the Porbeagle shark—Lamna cor- 
nubica, captured in Dingle Bay. The Iceland gull, Larus Islandicus, handsome 
specimens of the hawfinch, Coccothraustes vulgaris, and the mountain finch, Emberiza 
montium, have also been presented by Dr. Harvey, of Cork, and Messrs. Williams 
and Dombrain; and some very fine specimens of Ianthina, collected on the west 
