1 2 The Irish Naturalist. Januarj% 



ZOOLOGY. 



The American Facies of the British and Irish Fauna. 



I have been reading with much interest Mr. Southern's recent paper 

 on British Oligochaeta {Proc. H.I. Acad., vol-xxvii.), especially his exami- 

 nation of their distribution with a view to " find out whether they fall 

 into the usual geographical groups which are believed to constitute our 

 native fauna. These are four in number:— (i) North American, (2) 

 Northern and Alpine, (3) Lusitanian, (4) Germanic." 



It ma}' be well to state that in my studies of British Mammals I can 

 find no evidence for any former land connection via the Atlantic such as 

 could have been available for the passage of the ancestors of our present 

 mammalian fauna. On the contrary, all the evidence goes strongly to 

 indicate that for mammals the connection between America and Eurasia 

 has been via Bering's Straits and in, geologically speaking, recent times. 

 My view would be that such mammals as have a discontinuous distribu- 

 tion, including Britain or Western Europe and America, must have been 

 at one time inhabitants of intervening areas across Asia, from which 

 they have since retired. This type of discontinuous distribution is not 

 so frequent in mammals as in other groups. It is well illustrated by the 

 Pikas, or tailless Hares, whose area of distribution extends from South- 

 eastern Europe to the Rocky Mountains, with fossil representatives in 

 the Tertiaries of Europe. The steps between the status of these animals 

 and the Pygmy Shrew, an animal now found (with slight alterations of 

 form) from Ireland to America are probably represented by the Rein- 

 deer, and the group of Varying Hares, which had formerly a similar area 

 of distribution, from which they have now, however, in part retired. I 

 do not necessarily contend that the same reasoning should be applied to 

 the lower members of our fauna, and to those plants often styled the 

 American group, but I suggest that the wind rather blows in that 

 direction. I hope to return to this matter at greater length in my book 

 on British Mammals now in course of preparation. 



G. E. H. Barrett-Ham I i,TON. 



Kilmanock House, Campile, Co. Wexford. 



Recent Records of Irish Birds. 



Crossbii,!, {Loxia curvirostra). Nest with four eggs " in County 

 Wicklow," on June 9. — R. Hamilton-Hunter. Several flocks about 

 Dublin — W. J. Williams. Two individuals, at Maam Cross, in August — 

 P. W. Bahr. All in British Birds for October. 



Nightjar {Caprimulgics curopaus). Nest with one egg, in County 

 Waterford, May.— R. Hamilton-Hunter, Briiish Birds, October. 



Montagu's Harrikr {Cimis cincraceus). Adult male shot at Rath- 

 drum, County Wicklow, August 27 ; immature male captured on Lam- 

 bay, August 16.— W. J. Williams, in British Birds, October. 



RUFF {Machetes pugnax). A female shot near Ballycorick, County 

 Mayo, August 30. — R. Warren, in Zoologist, October. 



