88 The Irish Naturalist. August, 1924. 



hound is now always bred of an iron grey colour. The 

 stuffed head referred to by Dr. Hogan as being of Hamilton 

 Rowan's strain, as well as a magnificent example of the 

 Wolfhound given by The O'Mahony, which both agree 

 with the old description, are now in the National Museum 

 in Dublin. 



The view that this modern and still existing strain of 

 the Irish Wolfhound corresponds with the old breed is 

 suppoited by the fact that the Scottisn Deerhound is 

 essentially of the same race. Richardson maintained long 

 ago that the two were originally identical, although the 

 Scottish Deerhound had assumed certain distinctive 

 characters in the course of time.^^ Bell, who made a special 

 study of the Scottish Deerhound, comes to the same con- 

 clusion, confirming the opinion that it originated from the 

 Irish Wo If hound. ^^ When we consider that the Irish con- 

 quered Scotland centuries ago, and that they took their 

 deer-hunting hounds with them, it is not surprising that 

 it should be so. In the olden times the Irish warriors 

 who colonized Caledonia were called Scots. They kept 

 up their breed of dogs for hunting, and even in the 17th 

 century these dogs were still kno^\Tl as " Irish Greyhounds." 

 Moreover, whereas we have numerous records of the ex- 

 portation of Wolfhounds from Ireland, no evidence exists 

 of any exports of Deerhounds from Scotland, showing that 

 the latter are of more recent origin. 



The case in favour of the argument that the existing 

 strain of the Irish Wolfhound corresponds with the old 

 one is even stronger when we call to aid the actual skulls 

 of the two. Several skulls of a large wolf-like dog were 

 discovered in a crannog near DunshaughHn in County 

 Meath and first identified by Sir William Wilde as those of 

 the Wolfhound.^ ^ These skulls are in the National Museum 



16 Richardson, H. D. : " The Irish Wolfdog." Irish Penny Journal, 

 May, 1 84 1. 



17 Bell, E. W. : " The Scottish Deerhound." Edinburgh, 1892. 



1^ Wilde, W. : Upon the unmanufactured animal remains belonging 

 to the Academy. Proc. R. Trish Academy, Vol. vii., i860. 



{To he continued). 



