Wild Life in DonegalAuthor(s): R. Ll. PraegerSource: The Irish Naturalists' Journal, Vol. 8, No. 12 (Oct., 1946), pp. 442-443Published by: Irish Naturalists' Journal Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25533484 .

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442 The Irish Naturalists' Journal. [Vol. VIII.

the rich variety of scenery and of historical significance in the two counties otf Tyrone and Londonderry. At Newtownstewart the party was met by Mr. Ross Henderson and Rev. Richard Laird who described the Neolithic remains at BaJlyrenan and Leglands, the Crannog dwell

ing at Island JMaciHugh (recently explored by Mr. Oliver Davies), and the Jacobean anchor on the lawn at Baronscourt.

The half day excursion on Saturday, 7th September, led by Mr. A. McL. May, President, assisted by Mr. J. Batty, Secretary of the

Archaeology Section, was devoted to the Bronze Age burial places at

IMoneydig and Tirnoney, and the monastic remains in the old churches at Kilrea and Maghera, concluding with a visit to Caw, from which the (members returned to Coleraine bearing evidences of that miniature scene of purple grandeur set in an emerald ring of beauty.

WM. P. BROWN, Hon. Secretary.

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE BBAR-BERRY IN ANTRIM.

Sir,?Mr. Stelfox might have added as a final note to his 4t melancholy

" hut very interesting local hisiory of Arctostaphylos

(supra* .380) the >fact that the Lough Naroon colony was swept by Are in the .sprang of 1936 and most of the vegetation destroyed ; but the

Bear-berry was not exterminaed : on visiting the place in the following July it was found that the plants were shooting strongly from the bases of the dead trailing stems (see Fl. N.E.I., 140). The interest of this lies in the Tact that while heath-fires must, I think, still be regarded the chief cause orf the recent local decrease o?f such plants as the Bear

berry (as on (Fair Head), they are not always ffatal?although at Lough Naroon the burning was very thorough. This provides a final note of cheer! On this matte.1 the'ohservationis of Adams, Pethybridge and Praeger on the burnings on the Hill of Howth mav be kept in mind

(L.V., xvii).

(Mr. Stel fox's almost terrifying account oif the talus under Fair Head will not, I trust, deter any able-bodied naturalist from exjpending muscular energy in traversing this wonderful piece of ground which, as he remarks, .may well harbour the Bear-berry?and other rarities. The Parsley Fern, seen there by Primate D'Arey, has never been refound. But progress is so slow and difficult there that, in the interests of botanizing, I have found .it best to do half at a time?{from the Ballycastle end as far as the Grey Man's Path, and on another day from the Grey Man's Path to (Murlough Bay. The Welsh Poppy oh the rock-walls of the, (Grey Man's Path has neither increased or

decreased in the last sixty years?old natives are very conservative ; and the Bear-berry may be on Fair Head still. It is one thing to say that a plant has never been refonnd, but quite another thing to assert that it is extinct?witness the recent local cases Oif the Yew and Cow-berry on the Cave Hill quite close to Belfast, and the reflnding after many years in their only Irish stations o;f the Rock-rose in Donegal, the Sea Pea- in Kerry, and Carex elongata on Lough Erne ? Yours, etc., H. LLOYD PRAEGER.

Dublin.

WILD LIFE IN DONEGAL.

Sir,?My attention was recently drawn by Mrs. Macmillan (Nora Fisher) to "a book, which though published* in 1024, I had not met

w\th~~Haunts of the Eagle: Man and Wild Nature in Donegal, by Arthur W. Fox, M.A., F.H.iS.A.L, London: Methuen & Co. The author makes it clear that most of bis observations were made some twenty years earlier, so that bis Donegal is that of about the beginning of

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October, 1946.] The Irish Naturalists' Journal. 448

the present century?but sometimes anything up to a thousand or several thousand years earlier. The book is written in a sentimental and sensational style, with a plethora of superlatives, which is all

very weft when dealing with Balor of the Mighty Blows or Diarmid and Grania or even with the misdeeds of English Deputies or the

murder of Lord Leitrim, but does not coniform well with 'the recording of scientific data?even though the author says that his statements are founded on notes taken at the itime. It is perhaps on account of a hesitation on the part of subsequent writers on the flora and fauna of Donegal ?to use some of the statements made in the book that we find, so far as I am aware, only silence concerning some of

Mr. Fox's more striking observations. But "

silence gives consent," and it does not seem desirable that, in the absence of confirmation, it- should be thought that certain of his records are accepted tacitly.

For instance, he says that Golden Samphire was found on various

parts of the coast, and, though be sometimes calls it merely Samphire, he makes it clear what plant is intended by adding in one place its Latin name, Inula crithmoides, and alluding to its 14

golden blossoms." To Irish botanists this plant is known only on the south and east coasts, from Kerry to Dublin.

The Oak Fern was found at Glenveigh?it is unknown from

Donegal, and is exceedingly rare in Ireland. Silene acaulis is stated to grow in the Poisoned Glen: its only authenicated Donegal station is on Dunaff Head, far away. The writer states nowhere that he has seen or used Hart's

" Flora of the County Donegal

" 1898, or the

several previously published papers in which that energetic worker recorded most of his numerous Donegal finds of rare local plants; but our author sees the Killarney Fern (a

" fine crop

" of it) in the

Poisoned Glen, and the .Maidenhair on Slieve League ("on the edge of the cliff "?an unlikely habitat) from which places these two plants are recorded, though very rare: he certainly had more than good luck. Some other records sound unlikely1, as Silene acaulis in flower and

" London Pride

" in immature fruit on the same date near the

Poisoned Glen, also Asplenium marinum (a seashore plant) and

growing with A. viride (an alpine). But there are queerer things than that in the Irish flora.

Zoological records are principally of birds and butterflies. With the Golden Eagle he had remarkable good fortune, seeing four birds

(though he says it may have been one pair which, had flown across from Glenveagh to Slieve League); and he was privileged to crouch

within a few yards of one of them, grasping his heavy blackthorn tightly, and to watch it devouring a hare,

" while his golden head

and breast shone vividly." There seems to be something peculiar about acoustics in Donegal, for

" a piercing blood-curdling shriek rang

through the startled air . . . Looking up, into the dazzling vault of the sky, I caught sight of what was at first no bigger than a speck [the italics are mine] high overhead." Of course it was the Golden

Eagle; but how the thing was done without a megaphone it is difficult to understand.

However, the birds and insects are outside my province. As regards the plants, I hope I shall not be blamed if I put aside some of Mr. Fox's records until such time as they have been verified? preferably by an unromantic and unsentimental Irishman.

Yours etc., Dublin. B. LI. PRAEGEB.

HARVEST MITE SURVEY.

Sir,?We are carrying out a survey of the population of harvest mites in Great Britain. Related species of mites in Souith East Asia carry the disease of Scrub Typhus which caused more deaths than other diseases during the campaigns in Burma and the Pacific. This investigation is designed to provide a sound basis for the study of the disease bearing species.

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