134 ^^'^ Irish Naturalist. Oct.-Nov., 



As regards the south of Ireland WilHam Thompson (1) 

 states that he was informed in 1850 by Lord Bantry's 

 gamekeeper that some wild Red Deer still existed in 

 the neighbourhood of (ilengariff in County Cork. In 

 Waterford and Tipperary the Red Deer seems to have 

 become extinct at a much earlier period, for we are told 

 by Mr. Ussher (2) that in the mountains of Knockmealdown 

 which occupy a large area between these counties they were 

 apparently on the verge of extinction in 1774, although, 

 according to Wilham Thompson (1) a few Red Deer still 

 lived in the Galtee Mountains at the beginning of last 

 century. 



Earlier records of the existence of the Red Deer in 

 Ireland are scattered about in various books and pamphlets 

 but they lack detail. Sir William Brereton (3) writes in 

 the year 1635 that in the large park near Carnew in 

 County Wicklow there are plenty of both Red and Fallow 

 Deer. References are made in the State Papers of Henry 

 VIII. (4) to the number of people engaged in deer-hunting 

 in Kilkenny and Tipperary in the year 1525. According 

 to the Calendar of Close Rolls (5) Edward the First sent a 

 messenger to Ireland in 1275 for the purpose of purchasing 

 " brackets " (hounds) for stag-hunting.-^ Giraldus Cam- 

 brensis (6) during his travels in Ireland in the twelfth 

 century speaks of the stags as being so fat that they lose 

 their speed, and the more slender they are in shape the 

 more nobly they carry their heads and branching antlers. 

 It is quite certain that the Red Deer was indigenous in 

 Ireland and must have been very abundant throughout the 

 country for many centuries past. And yet we are told 

 that when the Royal Forest at Glencree in County 

 Wicklow was established in the thirteenth century eighty 

 deer were sent from the Royal Forest at Chester in the 

 year 1244 to stock this park. Mr. Le Fanu (7) to whom 

 we are indebted for this information assumes that it is 

 hardly likely such trouble and expense would have been 

 incurred had there been no natural or artificial boundary 

 to prevent the deer from straying away. 



^ I am greatly indebted to Mr. J. de W. Hindi for furnishing me with 

 above particulars. 



