i9i8. ScHARFF. — Tlic Irish Red Deer. 135 



Anyone unacquainted with the fossil remains of Red 

 Deer in Ireland might conclude from this introduction of 

 foreign stock that deer could not have inhabited this country 

 at that time. But there is no doubt whatever that Red 

 Deer from the remotest time must have been extraordinarily 

 abundant in Ireland. It seems strange therefore that Red 

 Deer had to be brought from England to stock this Royal 

 Forest. We meet with the bones and teeth of this deer 

 in the superficial gravels, in bogs and marls. In the 

 kitchen-middens all round the coast, and in the crannogs 

 the bones of Red Deer may be picked up almost anywhere 

 often associated with those of domestic animals. Implements 

 of various kinds were manufactured in Ireland from the 

 antlers of this deer. In almost all the Irish caves Red 

 Deer remains have been found in profusion, sometimes 

 along with those of Bear, Irish Elk, Reindeer and other 

 extinct species. There is ample evidence therefore that 

 the Red Deer lived in Ireland before the introduction 

 alluded to. The only doubt that might possibly occur to 

 anyone would be whether this deer might not have become 

 extinct in the thirteenth century so as to need reintroduction. 

 In that case it would have spread from Glencree Forest all 

 over Ireland, and the existing semi-domesticated Killarney 

 stock would be the descendants of English ancestors and 

 not of the old Irish race. 



During the last century Red Deer supposed to have 

 descended from the old Irish stock were kept in other 

 demesnes besides Killarney. Thus Lord Maurice Fitzgerald 

 had a herd in Wexford and presented to the National 

 Museum in Dublin a stag, hind and young, while a skeleton 

 of a Red Deer from Sir Victor Brooke's park in Fermanagh 

 was sent to the Museum in 1877. They still ornament the 

 collection of Irish animals, and w^e are thus able to compare 

 the modern Irish Red Deer with the old deer found in bogs 

 and caves. If they show very close agreement we may 

 assume that the old Irish Deer survived until the nineteenth 

 century unimpaired by the occasional introduction of 

 English and other stock. 



The collection in the National Museum, DubHn, contains 

 numerous antlers of Red Deer found in bogs, one pair with 



A 2 



