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Scoter, occurrence of, in Ireland

Seal holes in the ice

Singalese, characters of the

Skua, occurrence of, about Tramore, County Waterford

habits and change of characters, with age

Smew, occurrence of, in Ireland

Smith, Professor R. W.; on Enteroliths

on a disease of the foot-bones of the red deer

Uria lacrymans, occurrence of, in Ireland

Urticating Organs of Stephanomia

Vaucheria aquatica Lyngbye

Veddahs of Ceylon, characters of

Vertigo substriata, localities of, in Ireland

Waller, Edward; on the Fresh-water Mollusca of Finnoe

Wanderings of Birds

Water Newt, Celtic names of the

Water Rail, Spotted, occurrence of, in Ireland

Williams, R. P.; on Change of Colour in a Fowl

Wright, E. P.; on the Distribution of Anthrocera Minos in Ireland

DUBLIN UNIVERSITY ZOOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION.

NOVEMBER 16, 1855.

R. BALL, LL.D., President, in the Chair.

This being the anniversary meeting of the Association, the President proceeded to deliver the following address:

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At the close of the first session of the Association, many of its members will recollect that I had the pleasure of reading the heads of subjects which I had selected as proper to be noticed in an address on the objects, prospects, and progress of this Association; and at that time it was scarcely ripe for more.

Since then, constant pressure of other duties has caused me to postpone my intended communication, and I do not now regret it, as it enables me to congratulate the Association on the increased patronage and countenance it has received from the College authorities, as testified by the comfortable and well-lighted apartments in which we are now assembled. The members of this Association who have heard my former observations will, I trust, for the sake of their juniors, excuse the repetition of much of what I then said; while both will grant me indulgence for the imperfection of my present address, on the plea that I have really been recently much occupied in two matters, in which we all have an interest. These are Firstly, in promoting the spread of knowledge; and, secondly, in aiding to give to those who possess it the advantages to which industry and talent always had a claim, but which claim hitherto has been too often unacknowledged. The University Zoological Association, founded early in 1853, with the gracious approval of the Provost and Board of Trinity College, differs, you are aware, in its constitution from other societies. Its immediate object is to extend the knowledge of the zoology of our own island; but to do so effectively, it encourages the cultivation of general systematic zoology, and the application to it of philosophic principles and inductive reasoning as its necessary and only sound basis. Those who have heard the results of great learning and acute generalisation frequently applied in discussions which have arisen on papers read before us cannot doubt that zoology, thus cultivated, deserves the place to which it is rapidly rising in the scale of natural sciences.

I may remind you that the Association consists of-1st, ordinary members, who must be students of Trinity College, and whose number it was found necessary, for various reasons, to limit to 32; 2nd, honorary members, being older naturalists, residing in or near Dublin; 3rd, corresponding members, being distinguished persons, who are willing to promote the objects of the Association, or those who, having been ordinary members, have graduated and left college.

The main feature of this plan is, that the ordinary members, limited to 32, are, as it were, representatives of the counties of Ireland; and, were the list full, on a vacancy, preference would be given, ceteris paribus, to a student from an unrepresented county. The object of this arrangement is, that a wide-spread organisation of corresponding members should be established, trained in one school, and capable of making general observations on one principle. From this plan we may look forward to a time when zoological observations can be usefully conducted, and communicated to the Association as a common centre. But more of this hereafter.

The progress of the Association in useful results has been greater than I could have anticipated. It has, as I have before stated, received the necessary and muchvalued sanction of the Provost and Senior Fellows; has had the countenance of very many of the most eminent naturalists; has been honoured by the presence of several distinguished non-resident men of science; and has had the zealous service of its youthful officers. As to the work done, I can give you little more than a list; but it is one which is most creditable. For the greater number of papers, in extenso, I, with pleasure, refer you to the "Natural History Review," a work deservedly rising in estimation, useful in its object, and highly creditable to the energy and ability of its editors. As I cannot claim the slightest credit for originating this much-wanted work, I can the more strongly urge the necessity of your supporting it by your subscription, and a small one it is. Besides a full record of

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the transactions of this Association, some parts of which have already been translated into foreign tongues, it gives you the proceedings of the other Irish societies promoting natural history, as well as notices of periodicals, and well written reviews of books on natural science.

Short though the career of the Association has been, it has to mourn severe losses, irreparable, perhaps, in this generation. The first name death took from our list was that of the amiable and accomplished Dr. Drummond, of Belfast. No man was ever more desirous of spreading a taste for the study of natural history; and while doing so, he added to the store. His career having been already recorded, I briefly allude to it, reminding you that he accomplished much under circumstances in which ordinary persons would have supposed they could do nothing.

Mr. Robert Davis, of Clonmel, a Quaker, and in trade, devoted much time and attention to the collection of zoological specimens, and to obtaining accurate information respecting them. The Association lost in him a useful correspondent. He possessed considerable energy, coupled with no ordinary worth of character. I received a letter from him a short time before his death, in which he spoke of its approach with a calmness becoming a philosopher of his persuasion.

Professor Jameson's time-honoured name was enrolled in our lists. His generous permission to place it there was a recognition of the value he set on the pursuits of the Association, of which it may be proud. To call your attention to his wellknown merits as a philosophic naturalist would be to tell what all men know.

Next went his bright successor, the much-loved Edward Forbes, who, having obtained the Edinburgh chair, opened for a few months the prospect of a course of unexampled usefulness. His brilliant career was suddenly terminated. We cannot forget the interest he took in our proceedings, the advice he gave us, and the lucid observations he made at the meetings at which he was present; had he lived, we should have had still greater proofs of the interest he took in our welfare. Though no naturalist has died in our time of whom so much has been written, I feel it is a subject which, to enter on, would lead us far into the night. I knew him well; and he has left a blank which his friends will find it hard to fill.

The next name struck from our list is that of Mr. James Garret, an energetic and honest attorney, whose recreation was practical ornithology. My much-loved friend, W. Thompson, confiding in his ability, named him as one of his executors for the publication of his posthumous works. With great care he and his coexecutor gathered poor Thompson's MSS. together, had them arranged and transcribed; but as they were ready for the press, fever carried him off. However, the book in question will probably make its appearance in a few months.

Our melancholy list closes with the name of Dr. George Johnston, of Berwicka man who, perhaps, more than any other, promoted the cultivation of native zoology. Struggling under straitened circumstances, which called for much personal exertion, he yet contrived to give to the public a number of excellent works. He led and kept together a band of naturalists in his own neighbourhood, and encouraged many at a distance. His manner and disposition were as prepossessing as his knowledge was sound, and he died deservedly regretted.

Of the distinguished men of whom I have thus made mention, all save Professor Jameson were comparatively young men ; but they did much. When and where shall we look for fit successors? This I know, that these men made their great progress by positive hard work, and earnest study. None of them ever sought spurious credit by decrying the work of others, or by appropriating it. On the contrary, dear and personal friends as they were of my own, I have seen how they endeavoured to place to the credit of every man his just share, and how they preferred encouraging their friends to take up subjects in which they were themselves engaged, their desire being to add to the real working body. This is a spirit quite contrary to that of pseudo-naturalists, whose practices we cannot too strongly discountenance.

LOCAL AND IRISH NAMES.

The members of the Association may, with little trouble, contribute to perfect a list of the names of animals in the Irish tongue. These names are fast disappearing, and if lost will be irretrievable. I have taken much pains to collect

information on the subject. It is one which is interesting to Philology and Topography, as well as to Zoology. I have obtained in my examination many proofs of this, and have also found that names of animals exist in some of the ancient manuscripts which we cannot now translate; and names of species appear which have altogether disappeared from the country, and others of animals which we have been led to believe were of recent introduction; the gray rat, for instance, is mentioned with the black rat in a poem written in the 7th century.

It is also very desirable to collect the local vulgar names of animals. It seems somewhat remarkable that within much of the English pale, we find birds, &c., called by Irish names, while in the more Irish parts of the country English names, sometimes incorrectly applied, are in common use. Records of such facts are very well worth preserving.

EXTINCT MAMMALIA.

The attention of members of the Association may be usefully directed to the observation of mammalian remains found in bogs. When the head and horns of a giant deer are found they attract the attention of the neighbourhood; while nobody appears to observe the hornless skulls found in the same locality. Thus for many years it was supposed that the females of the species had horns; now we know that these deer followed the same law as their present representative, the fallow deer.

The existence of bears was denied; but it has recently been proved that they were contemporaries of the giant deer. We have proofs of wolves and foxes, of a remarkable race of short-horned cattle, various goats, horses, and deer; but we have no proof of the existence of the celebrated wolf-dog, nor of the beaver, by the production of any of the osseous remains. May I suggest to members to examine carefully any discoveries of bones they may chance to be cognizant of, for the desiderata I have referred to, or for any other species than those I have enumerated as already well known. It may be well here to urge that in any examination of the deposit where bones are found, accurate observations should be made as to whether the ground has before been turned up by man. I have reason to believe that much crude theory has been the result of want of care in this respect; for, so far as I have been able to trace the occurrence of the bones of giant deer in connection with human remains, they appear to have been thrown up in the making of trenches round the fortified islets so common in our country; thus, it would be as correct to consider the last thrown-up shovel full of clay from a trench at Sebastopol as coeval with the military weapons it perhaps covered, as to imagine that an elk's horn thrown from the marl at the bottom of a dyke was contemporary with the implements of the recently constructed island fort which it helped to form.

SUPPOSED DIFFICULTY OF FINDING SUBJECTS FOR STUDY.

Persons are not unfrequently heard to complain that they are so circumstanced that they have no opportunity to pursue any study in zoology: there is no person really so circumstanced. The prisoner in his dungeon studied, to advantage, the natural history of a solitary spider. I know a lady who made a collection of 200 species of insects on the windows of her drawing-room in this city. I recollect, when sitting on an old ivy-clad gate pier on a hill over the sea, a resident gentleman said to me, he should like to know something of the land and fresh-water mollusks, but that there were none in that region. I replied there are, and several species, too, on the structure on which we are sitting. I proceeded to examine, and found no fewer than eight living species; while in a bog, just close at hand, were four or five more. I could enumerate many other cases, proving that where there is a student of zoology, there are always subjects of study.

UNNECESSARY DESTRUCTION OF SPECIES.

I would venture to urge on the members of the Association that they should consider themselves the protectors of animal life. Associations for the protection of game are common; why should not naturalists unite to prevent the annihilation of rare species, many of which are useful, not a few ornamental, and none more mischievous than foxes, hares, and pheasants. Waterton protected all animals

that pleased to take shelter at Walton Hall, and the result was very pleasing; he had about him birds of the most interesting kinds, whose manners he could thus observe. There is much brutality in shooting down birds merely to say how many you have destroyed; but as I have elsewhere urged this at length, I shall not further allude to it; and it is fully treated in the Rev. Dr. Drummond's interesting work entitled "The Rights of Animals." Could the Association be induced to undertake the protection I propose, and should it spread (as I fervently hope it may), many useful and interesting species of birds, now rare, may, if treated as kindly as the robin, become as common.

DREDGING.

I would particularly desire to direct the attention of the Association to marine dredging, philosophically carried out; it throws light on many difficult geological and geographical points. Members of the Association desirous of undertaking dredging with these views, can obtain assistance and direction from the reports and papers issued by the Dredging Committee of the British Association. With the more strictly zoological objects, dredging affords ever varying and delightful occupation; but, as in all other pursuits, a little practice and the exercise of some judgment is necessary to secure its best results. I have myself paid much attention to facilitating the use of the dredge, and have successfully overcome all the difficulties that have presented themselves to me; so that what was, when I first attempted it, a heavy labour, not devoid of risk, and uncertain in its results, is now a matter of little trouble. There are many things to be attended to in dredging. On one occasion a gentleman in the boat with me, of a mechanical turn, thought the fitting of the dredge was a bad piece of work; being loose, he diligently fastened it; some time elapsed before I found it out, and for that period all our labour was vain. Again I was induced to have the dredge nets made of very strong whip cord, as an improvement. When this got wet it contracted and twisted so much that in some cases the dredge was useless. Mr. Eyton, aware of this defect, makes his nets of a twine composed of a great number of threads very loosely twisted together. My last improved dredge has the knives parallel, the arms about the length of the knives, and connected together by a chain as long as one arm. The whole is galvanized, and thus the destruction caused by rust to the net prevented.

EXCURSIONS.

As to one of the most pleasing prospects of our Association, I look forward to excursions of its members. My avocation hitherto has much interfered with my taking part in such things; but I have been sometimes so indulged, and I can recall with great gratification the pleasure they afforded, and can testify to their value in the communication of knowledge. I have found, speaking of myself, that I was enabled to ask for information from, probably, the best authority, and to seek explanation of difficulties with a freedom which a more formal meeting would not permit. In fact, I could there get over the fear of showing my ignorance, and such fear is one of the greatest drawbacks in the acquirement of knowledge.

The excursions of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, of the classes of the professors of Botany, of the Linnean Society, and of the sections of the British Association, have always been of the most delightful interest, highly conducive to intellectual progress, and to the cultivation of social friendships. I have often desired leisure for writing plans of such excursions round Dublin. I think it would be advisable, with this view, that the Association undertook to collect materials. We have many local lists; but what we want is a guide to show where, how, and when, we should look to find the objects of our study in their native habitats. It is true that when a good practical naturalist joins a party on an excursion in a district which he well knows he is able to point out much to interest his companions; but what I want is such a guide as will enable the young naturalist to go and train himself when he cannot have help from others. Solitary rambles are, when employed in natural history, very instructive.

I recollect when I was but a child the many delightful days I spent in examining animals on the shore, and I am conscious of having at that time seen