1. Which pagan charm, essential to Christmas office parties, grows on some apple trees in Ireland's south-east?
2. Which bird defends its own berried holly tree?
a blackbird
b mistle thrush
c fieldfare
3. Cloves are?
a berries
b flower buds
c root nodules
4. Which animal is shown on the one-punt piece?
5. Which heavenly phenomenon lit up the west coast in November?
6. Shoals of which small Mediterranean fish, a salty adjunct to Christmas canapΘs, have been caught recently off Co Donegal?
7. Mirkwood and Fangorn are forests in which classic literary fantasy, now a major film?
8. The emperor is a striking migrant dragonfly, new to Ireland: what colour is it?
9. Which of these mammals never reached Ireland?
a musk ox
b beaver
c spotted hyena
10. What sort of rock is weathered into grykes and kamenitza?
11. Which bird is the "fern owl"?
12. "Decoys" were created on many old grand estates: what did they catch?
13. What is a grainne≤g?
14. Polypody fern grows on trees in Ireland's wetter woods: what does "polypody" mean?
15. Which is the commonest great whale off Ireland's Atlantic shores?
a fin
b sei
c blue
16. Hard-shelled animals called Hydrobia, teeming in the mud of Dublin Bay, are food for great winter flocks of waders. Which kind of creature are they?
a snails
b worms
c shrimps
17. "With monstrous head and sickening cry/ And ears like errant wings" - which domestic animal was G.K.Chesterton describing?
18. When did Ireland's last wolf die?
a 1654
b 1786
c 1803 ?
19. Among collective nouns, a "dread" refers to which birds?
20. Sticky "honeydew", a feast for wasps, is produced by which insect?
21. Which of these is not a moth?
a lesser yellow underwing
b light-feathered rustic
c boat-tailed grackle
22. US scientist Stephen Jay Gould came to Dublin's Natural History Museum, "yardstick in hand", to measure which famous bones?
23. "A mottled goatskin bodhrβn,/a vellum of weathered light" - what is Chris Agee writing about?
24. Joany an scrugaill, Sile Rβga, N≤ra na bportach were local Irish names for which bird?
25. When Anthoxanthum odoratum is harvested, it releases the sweet smell of summers past: what kind of plant is it?
26. The earwig's coarser folkname was the "arsewig": true or false?
27. Magairl∅ an Deamhain, a mountain above the head of Killary Harbour, has been bowdlerised as the Devil's Mother. What should it be called?
28. "What are they dragging up and out on their long leashes of sound" - which mammal was Ted Hughes listening to?
29. The comma is a new flying migrant to Ireland: which sort?
30. The red on a robin covers breast and face: true or false?
31. In Irish, it's "the pig of the sea" - which of the cetaceans?
32. Blue sharks caught by sea anglers off Ireland are now tagged and released. The specimen weight for the fish is?
a 25 kilos
b 45 kilos
c 70 kilos
33. How many wild swans did Yeats count at Coole?
a seven and 20
b four and 40
c nine and 50
34. The Wicklow Mountains are made of?
a basalt
b sandstone
c granite
35. Which Irish bird raises most baby cuckoos?
a meadow pipit
b dunnock
c song thrush
36. Coastal rubbish dumps in the west attract which specialty among twitchers?
37. Which mammal's cry is now a standard sound-effect in night-time, outdoor scenes on television?
38. Esox lucius is a big, freshwater fish which looks at you with both eyes at once: which is it?
39. Spare nests, built in spring, make winter roosts for which small garden bird?
40. Which native tree, once considered a weed by Irish foresters, could now become a serious hardwood crop?
41. In the late 17th century, plagues of migrant flying beetles arrived in Ireland with a noise "like the beating of drums". Sometimes called May-bugs, what were they?
42. December 29th last year saw the first arrivals of an "irruption" of colourful, crested, berry-eating birds. Which kind were they?
43. "Orange roughy" is appearing on restaurant menus: what is it?
44. Sloes are the fruit of which bush?
45. Our only marine nature reserve is in Co Cork. What is its name?
46. Which small bird with yellow-splashed wings and rump is a bully at the bird-table?
47. On which Co Kerry mountain are the Paternoster Lakes?
48. Where is the mother tree of all the upright Irish yews?
49. Which Atlantic seabird nested and bred on a Connacht island for the first time this year?
a great auk
b great skua
c wandering albatross
50. A chemical called luciferin has what striking effect in some insects and fish?
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