68 I he Irish Naturalist, 



one of his papers' that " The probabilitj' is, that the migra- 

 tion came from Scotland, and that there was a land communi- 

 cation between the two countries at the close of the Glacial 

 Period, b}^ which the greater portion of the mammals that 

 had found their way to Scotland crossed to Ireland." 

 Professor Leith Adams was led to make this suggestion hy 

 the fact that all the living and extinct mammals of Ireland, 

 with the exception of the Grizzly Bear, have been recorded 

 also from Scotland, while a large number of extinct English 

 mammals are absent from both Ireland and Scotland. This 

 suggestion has been .supported by the recent investigations of 

 Scottish naturalists into the Fauna of the islands lying 

 between Ireland and Scotland. 



In an ingenious paper lately published. Dr. R. F. Scharfif^ 

 has stated his opinion, based upon the distribution of the 

 Fresh-water Fish and the Mollusca that ''Ireland was in later 

 Tertiary times connected with Wales in the South and Scot- 

 land in the North, whilst a freshwater lake occupied the present 

 central area of the Irish Sea. The Southern connection broke 

 down at the beginning of the Pleistocene Period, the 

 Northern connection following soon after. There is no 

 evidence of an}- subsequent land connection between Great 

 Britain and Ireland." There is much to be said in favour of 

 this view, but it seems to us that perhaps an adaptation of 

 Mr. Bulman's views to Ireland might account for the pecu- 

 liarities of the flora and fauna of the south and west, such as the 

 presence of the Mediterranean Heath and the Natter-jack toad. 



Passing on to the systematic part of the work — which 

 commences with the Bats (pp. 13 — 53), of which seven 

 species have been found in Ireland, we find the statement 

 that " since Bats are, on the whole, less interesting than 

 many other British mammals, our notices of the various 

 species will be comparatively brief" Thus, Mr. I^ydekker 

 again avoids a difficulty, and, while giving us anj^ quantity of 

 quotations from writers on the habits of our more common and 

 easil}^ observed mammals, contents himself with most meagre 

 notes on the rarer, or less easily observed, and therefore, we 

 should have thought, more interesting species. The list of 



1 '* Report on the History of Irish Fossil Mammals," Proc. Roy. Irish 

 Acad. (2) Vol. iii., 1883. 



2 Pi'oc. R. Irish Acad, (3) Vol. iii., 1S94, No. 3. 



