591.9 375 



The Problems of the British Fauna 



IN the current volume of Natural Science (pp. 223-4) appeared a 

 short editorial comment on my friend Dr E. F. Scharffs paper 

 on the Origin of the European Fauna. 1 The Editor has misunder- 

 stood Dr Scharffs views in several particulars, and has nevertheless 

 expressed the fear that his "speculations will prejudice the use of 

 zoological distribution in geological investigations." As the prob- 

 lems raised are of great interest to all naturalists, a further 

 examination of the subject may perhaps be allowed. It is some- 

 what unfortunate that the present writer approaches the ques- 

 tion from the same standpoint as that of Dr Scharff- — zoological 

 geography. But it is to be hoped that some of the special students 

 of our Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits will, in due course, favour 

 us with their criticism. 



The problems suggested by the fauna and flora of the British 

 Islands appeal in a marked degree to naturalists who live in Ireland, 

 especially if those naturalists happen to be English immigrants to 

 the sister isle. A botanist or a zoologist who has grown up in the 

 south of England, and has then transferred himself to Ireland, is 

 struck by the absence of many of his familiar wild friends, and the 

 presence of many forms of life hitherto unknown to him as British 

 species. The peculiarities of the Irish flora, such as the occurrence 

 of Pyrenean saxifrages and Mediterranean heaths in western Ireland, 

 have long been familiar to naturalists, and are discussed in the 

 classical memoir of Forbes. 2 It may be well, however, to recall a 

 few of the corresponding facts regarding the fauna. The student of 

 vertebrates notices the absence, for example, from Ireland of the 

 Common Hare {Lepus europaeus), the Voles, the Mole, the Weasel, the 

 Polecat, the Nightingale, and all reptiles except the Viviparous Lizard. 

 The entomologist misses such conspicuous insects as the Stag-beetle 

 {Lucanus cervus), the great water beetle Hydrophilus piceus, and 

 the Large tortoiseshell butterfly {Vanessa pohjchloros). These are 

 representatives of a group of animals to which the present writer has 

 applied the term " Teutonic fauna," 3 while Dr Scharff, in his recent 



1 Proc. E. Irish Acad. (3), vol. iv.,pp. 427-. r >14. An excellent summary appeared 

 in Nature of October 28th, 1897. 



2 Mem. Geol. Survey Gt. Britain, vol. i., 1S46. 



3 Jfuseums Assoc it. Report, 1894. 



