100 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
on the history, and even pedigrees, of existing species. Surgeon Wilde, indeed, to 
whom is due the credit of having first mentioned the Dunshaughlin discovery, 
about twelve years ago, has, fortunately, preserved many interesting specimens ; but 
his collection is far from complete. And when we recollect that, since that period, 
at least two similar bone peaks have been found—one in the lake of Ballinderry, 
near Moate, the other at Strokestown, county of Roscommon—we cannot help 
fearing that many subjects of great interest to the Irish naturalist have been lost. 
I may add, that judging from the character of the antiquities found, under the same 
circumstances, in each of the three localities, the animals of which the horns had 
formed a portion, could not have existed later than the ninth or tenth century. In 
each of the localities referred to, antlers of the red deer, similar to those before the 
Society, were found in considerable numbers. In conclusion, I trust, on a future 
occasion, to be able to present to our museum some additional specimens. 
Mr. Ffennell, Inspecting Commissioner of Fisheries, said that he would bo 
prepared to give a paper on the habits of the salmon, and on some peculiarities with 
regard to the young state, at the next meeting of the Society. 
A ballot having taken place, Henry Charles Horner, Esq., of Mountjoy-square, 
was elected a member. 
The meeting then adjourned to the month of April. 
APRIL 27, 1855. 
Charles Farran, Esq., M.D., in the Chair. 
The previous minutes being confirmed and preliminary business disposed of, 
Mr. Andrews, Honorary Secretary, said that he had to express his regret that, 
owing to some disarrangement in the rooms, the usual night of the meeting had been 
postponed to this evening. He trusted, however, that such an alteration would not 
again occur. 
The first paper on the list for the evening being Mr. Ffennell’s—“ On the Salmon, 
and on Peculiarities with regard to the Young State,” 
Mr. Andrews said he had been handed a note from Mr. Ffennell, Commissioner 
of Fisheries, expressing his regret that he was unable to fulfil the object of the 
notice which he had given, to make some communications “ on the salmon,” as he 
was unexpectedly obliged to be absent on public duty. 
Mr. Watters was then called on for his paper 
ON THE HABITS AND ON THE VARIETIES OF SOME OF THE LARIDJ2. 
At the last meeting of your Society, a paper was read by your Honorary Secre¬ 
tary, Mr. Andrews, which contained a notice of one of the Xemas, or Black-headed 
Gulls, which coincided very closely with the measurements and descriptions of 
Bonaparte’s Gull (Larus Bonapartii). At the suggestion of Dr. Farran I have put 
together some notes on the habits of the Faridas, and on varieties incident to the 
family, which, with some specimens to illustrate my observations, I beg to submit 
for your approval. In the entire range of our Irish Fauna there is no family com¬ 
prised in it which demands more notice from the ornithologist than the well-known 
and widely-distributed family of the Land as. Tenanting every variety of shore— 
sandy-beach as well as precipitous rocks—the study of their habits not alone affords 
interest to the observer, but offers a criterion and infallible index to the fisherman, 
that where they most congregate, fish is plentiful. Simple as their habits may ap¬ 
pear, I feel my own incompetency in endeavouring to create in your minds the in¬ 
terest with which the birds of this family are invested. Indeed it must appear to the 
ordinary observer as something very strange, that these mere sea-gulls flying past 
him along our quays could possess habits of the slightest interest. But to any one 
who has observed them in the neighbourhood of some rocky shore-line, where story 
after story of birds take their position along the precipices, and on whose tabular 
projections stand, not in tens or hundreds, but in thousands and tens of thousands, 
the various members of this interesting tribe, there is almost an injunction convej^ed 
in the sight that the ornithologist is bound to make known that such things exist. 
On several occasions I have been fortunate enough in observing a great proportion 
