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61.

23rd April 1954. 

Spent forenoon showing Dance round centre of Dublin.  In afternoon & evening we discussed Pisidia, which was the object of his visit.  Sunny!  E. Wind!


24th April. 

Again a dry sunny day with E. Wind.  Spent forenoon & evening at Pisidia.  In afternoon Dance & I walked to Orwell Bridge & collected Pisidia in the R. Dodder above & below the bridge & from the mill race along the new park at Dartry. 

Above the Bridge & in the "Dodder Park" we took only five specimens - all P. nitidum of a nice large river-form;  below the bridge & above the weir (on left bank!) we took P. amnicum, casertarum (1), milium (3) & subtruncatum & in the mill-race P. subtruncatum in abundance, & one each of P. castertarum & nitidum.  Other mollusca seen were Sphaerium corneum, Bethynia tentaculata, Valvata piscinalis, Limnaea pereger - a large ovalis form & eggs already laid, & one specimen of Physa fontinalis.

Many dead Paludestrina jenkinsi seen & a few large adults which had come through the winter & still alive, as well as one Planorbis corneus & several Pl. carinatus the former, like the duckweed Lemna gibba derived from Rathfarnham Castle ponds.


25th April 1954.

Dry, cold E. wind, much hot sun.  In afternoon took a ♂︎ Cratichneumon? sp. flying around Flowering Currant in back garden.  Antennae 26-seg.


62.

26th-27th April 1954.

Continung very dry with strong cold E. wind & some hot sun in afternoon.  White frost on night of 26th-27th, as on many other nights recently.  As S.P. Dance nautrally feels the cold - & arrived with a cold - on return from Egypt I have not taken him out to hunt for Pisidia, but let him stay in the house & look at Pisidia, which is about all he wants to do!


28th April.

A very fine forenoon & much less cold than of late as anticyclone weakens.  Drove S.P. Dance via Brittas to Ballinascorney Gap, Co. DU., & at 1,000 feet we hunted for Pisidia where springs from the limey moraine trickle down into the stream flowing N. & into the R. Dodder.

Pisidium casertanum, P. subtruncatum & P. milium [& possibly P. personatum, but this not opened & so uncertain!].  

Examined these during the afternoon & in evening saw Dance off at Westland Row for home.


29th-30th April.

Dry & mainly sunny on 29th but could not leave home as a parcel expected from H.W. Daltry;  but this did not arrive till 11 AM. on 30th when glass having fallen for 12 hours rain threatened.  Nevertheless got lunch ready & left home in car at 12.15 just a drizzle commenced & ran into rain at Churchtown & out on to dry roads at Stepaside & via Bray to the Glen of the Downs, where no rain had fallen up till our arrival.  Had lunch