Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

jfalst Pretences, (lr tbt IBioiogt* of intention. Nov. 16, 1899. By R. DRANE, F.L.S. I HAVE been asked to justify my membership of this section by providing for it a paper appropriate to its purposes. I have nothing of that nature to say, hence the title I have adopted. I should like to act as an able-bodied Biologist, and suspect that I shall efficiently play the part of a lame duck; but even lame ducks must respond to the call of duty," and should not be hardly judged for their incapacities. But of a truth I have no Biology for you, so I am going to attempt an Irish excuse for the undoubted deficiency, and give some account of a holiday in Ireland last June, whither I went with my friend Mr. Neale for the increasing of our knowledge of the birds that breed along its north and north-western coast. On the 6th of June we found ourselves at Ballycastle, Co. Antrim, the point from which we started on our excursions, where we spent the following day to visit the coast in its vicinity. Here we found the Humming Bird- Hawkmoth in abundance, and I note the fact, because it may possibly be of interest to those of our section who are more familiar with entomology than am I, for, as I received three of these moths from one of our haunted islands of Western Wales, all of which flew into a lighted room, one evening in July, as I am told, they were abundant this year at Penarth, and as I saw them also in abundance in Scotland at the end of September it may illustrate the fact, with reference to this species, which is well-known in natural history; the unexplained periodical abundance and scarcity of this or that insect animal or plant of which I shall give another instance presently. At any rate this little fact remains that this Hawkmoth is on the wing day and night for at least four months of the year in the British Isles, to