1. Maiden's Blush, Lady's Finger, Munster Tulip were all old-fashioned Irish kinds of which Christmas stockingfiller?
2. Which winter nibbles turned up in quantity down the back of brushwood sofas in Dublin's Viking digs?
3. Microcosmos was one of this year's more unexpected hit films: what were its stars?
4. A new species of Irish mammal was found this year - Nathasius's something. What was it?
5. Winter sometimes brings little flocks of colourful foreign birds to feed on garden berries in Dublin. Which are they?
6. Which alien freshwater mollusc has invaded the Shannon?
7. A big, new book on the Irish countryside has been in the bestseller list for months: what is it?
8. Name the smaller of the winter's migrant swans.
9. "There is a willow grows aslant a brook/That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream" - lines from which Shakespeare play?
10. Dublin's Point depot has brachiopods all over the walls - what are they?
11. Hooper's Rule is about (a) turkey territories (b) aggression in sticklebacks (c) species in ancient hedgerows.
12. How many species of insects does Ireland have: (a) 3,500 (b) 10,000 (c) 16,000?
13. Hedgehogs have a special enemy among our wild mammals: which is it?
14. Reynoutria japonica, an invasive shrub with heart-shaped leaves and creamy flowers, is growing thickets all over Ireland. Give its common name.
15. How many kinds of crow do we have?
16. Which Irish shellfish was used to make the "royal purple" dye?
17. Elephant, hummingbird, convolvulus and poplar are all kinds of which insect?
18. "Glory be to God for dappled things - For skies as couple-colour as a brindled cow" - whose lines?
19. Robert Lloyd Praeger's The Way That I Went has just been republished. Who wrote The Way That I Followed?
20. Which large Irish tree seed is harvested commercially for the treatment of varicose veins?
21. What is the term for a limestone landscape eroded by weather and water?
22. The antlers of the giant Irish deer measured up to three metres across. True or false?
23. Which imitative insects from New Zealand have made themselves at home in subtropical corners of Co Kerry?
24 Spleenwort, buckler, hawk beard, polypody are species of what group of plants?
25. Grey squirrels eat acorns but red squirrels can't digest them: true or false?
26. Lion's Mane is (a) a giant jellyfish (b) a bracket fungus (c) a golden moss?
27. Americans call them loons, for their wailing courtship cry. Around our shores in winter, they keep quiet. What do we call them?
28. More than 360 species of midge are now known in Ireland. How many sorts of mosquito: (a) 8 (b) 18 (c) 38?
29. Thrushes sometimes crush insects along their feathers to expel mites and other parasites: which insects?
30. Goatbleat and goatsucker are vernacular names for two birds. What are they?
31. Fossil footprints in the slate of an Irish island may be the earliest track of an amphibian yet found in Europe. Which island?
32. Amplexus is the term for (a) the deep-breathing of whales (b) the mating embrace of frogs (c) the thermal soaring of eagles?
33. Name for the sugary excretions of aphids, lapped up by wasps and butterflies.
34. Who celebrated "A springful of larks in a rolling/Cloud and the roadside bushes brimming with whistling/Blackbirds . . ."?
35. Lesser horseshoe bats make a summer roost in which of W.B.Yeats' country homes?
36. Ireland's first Habitat Conservation Stamp, value £5, was launched this year: what wildlife does it show?
37. Raymond Piper is famous for painting which family of Irish plants?
38. Artioposthia triangulata is the scientific name of which sinister antipodean predator, now found under Irish garden flower-pots?
39. Name the three Irish amphibians.
40. Scraith chloch was an important dye-stuff in rural Ireland a century or so ago. What was it?
41. Solar winds generate the energy for this winter light-show in the northern sky. Name it.
42. The buzzard is beginning to expand in Ireland. Which other rare raptor, once common as a snapper-up of urban garbage, is making trips across the Irish Sea?
43. The absence of what substance causes albinism in birds and animals?
44. "The Hollow Of The Copse" is actually 925m high and a popular weekend climb in Co Wicklow: which of the hills?
45. Peanuts, staple of suburban bird-tables are an annual legume. Do they grow (a) on tropical vines (b) in clusters on bushes (c) as underground seed-pods?
46. Fritillaries have beautifully chequered patterns - in which two groups of living things?
47. One of these birds has never been native to Ireland: crane, capercaillie, bustard, bittern?
48. The creature in the drawing, hoovering up plankton, is Cetorhinus maximus, the second-largest living species of fish: what is its common name?
49. Killarney's lakes are suffering from the growth of bluegreen algae: which farm chemical is to blame?
50. Is the Lousy Watchman (a) a beetle (b) a spider (b) a goose?
Answers
1 Apple. 2 Hazelnut. 3 Insects. 4 Nathasius's pipistrelle, a bat. 5 Waxwings. 6 Zebra mussel. 7 Atlas Of The Rural Irish Landscape. 8 Bewick's. 9 Hamlet. 10 Limestone fossil shells. 11 (c). 12 (c). 13 Badger. 14 Japanese knotweed. 15 Eight: raven, rook, jackdaw, magpie, chough, jay, hooded, carrion. 16 Dog whelk. 17 Hawkmoths. 18 Gerard Manley Hopkins (in "Pied Beauty"). 19 Frank Mitchell. 20 Horse chestnut. 21 Karst. 22 True. 23 Stick insects. 24 Ferns. 25 True. 26 (a). 27 Great northern diver. 28 (b). 29 Ants (which secrete formic acid). 30 Snipe and nightjar. 31 Valentia, Co Kerry. 32 (b). 33 Honeydew. 34 Dylan Thomas (Poem In October). 35 Thoor Ballylee, Co Galway. 36 Mallard. 37 Orchids. 38. New Zealand flatworm. 39 Newt, frog, Natterjack toad. 40 Crottle lichen. 41 Aurora borealis. 42 Red kite. 43 Melanin. 44 Lugnaquilla. 45 (c). 46 Plants and butterflies. 47 Bustard. 48 Basking shark (the whale shark is bigger). 49 Phosphorus. 50 (a).