CORRESPONDENCE. 



The pre-Glacial British Fauna. 



The solution of the problem which forms the subject of Mr. Bulman's article is 

 a very important one, both from a biological and from a geological point of view, and 

 he has very ably argued the points in favour of a survival of a pre-Glacial Fauna and 

 Flora in the British Islands. Since the appearance of Professor Forbes's classic 

 essay referred to by Mr. Bulman, many additional facts regarding the existence of a 

 Lusitanian Flora in the South of Ireland have been brought to light, and although 

 the possibility of their post-Glacial transmission by birds is not to be excluded, it is 

 not likely that such was their origin, since they are now known to be associated with 

 Lusitanian animals, of which one at least (Geomalacus maculosus) must have reached 

 these shores by a land passage, as both it and its eggs are almost immediately killed 

 by immersion in sea-water. That this slug should have been accidentally carried 

 by birds from Portugal to the South of Ireland is surely not worthy of argument. 

 The geographical distribution of slugs, indeed, and of non-operculate molluscs, 

 especially the subterranean species, may be most profitably utilised in the task of 

 solving the problem of the origin of the British Fauna. 



Equally important, and in many respects even more so, are the mammals, and an 

 enquiry like that initiated by Mr. Bulman might with advantage be started, tracing 

 the origin of the Irish species first. Familiar English species, such as the Weasel, 

 Mole, Voles, Common Shrew, and Hare, and many others, are absent from Ireland. 

 It has been suggested that Ireland was separated from England before these 

 mammals had time to cross over, but among them we have some of the most quickly- 

 spreading animals, and it is more probable that they arrived in England only long 

 after the species at present inhabiting Ireland, which therefore formed part of 

 another and much earlier immigration from the continent. This immigration was 

 probably pre-Glacial, but that the second was not entirely post-Glacial seems proved 

 by the fact that remains of some of the mammals mentioned as being absent from 

 Ireland occur in the Forest Bed. R F. Scharff. 



22 Leeson Park, Dublin. 



Arch.eopteryx. 

 In reference to Dr. Hurst's interesting, but somewhat intemperately-worded 

 article on Arcluroptcryx last month, I should like to remark that although Professor 

 von Zittel's copy of Owen's restored figure of the hand of this bird wants one finger 

 in the original German edition of the " Handbuch der Palaeontologie," the mistake 

 is rectified in the subsequent French edition. It is thus obvious that the author's 

 omission was an accident, and not intentional ; possibly the block was "battered" 

 at the edge of the page. 



A. S. W. 



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