591.9 375 
1 
The Problems of the British Fauna 
N the current volume of Natwral Science (pp. 223-4) appeared a 
short editorial comment on my friend Dr R. F. Scharffs paper 
on the Origin of the European Fauna The Editor has misunder- 
stood Dr Scharff’s views in several particulars, and has nevertheless 
expressed the fear that his “speculations will prejudice the use of 
zoological distribution in geological investigations.” As the prob- 
lems raised are of great interest to all naturalists, a further 
examination of the subject may perhaps be allowed. It is some- 
what unfortunate that the present writer approaches the ques- 
tion from the same standpoint as that of Dr Scharff—zoological 
geography. But it is to be hoped that some of the special students 
of our Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits will, in due course, favour 
us with their criticism. 
The problems suggested by the fauna and flora of the British 
Islands appeal in a marked degree to naturalists who live in Ireland, 
especially if those naturalists happen to be English immigrants to 
the sister isle. A botanist or a zoologist who has grown up in the 
south of England, and has then transferred himself to Iveland, is 
struck by the absence of many of his familiar wild friends, and the 
presence of many forms of life hitherto unknown to him as British 
species. The peculiarities of the Irish flora, such as the occurrence 
of Pyrenean saxifrages and Mediterranean heaths in western Ireland, 
have long been familiar to naturalists, and are discussed in the 
classical memoir of Forbes.2_ It may be well, however, to recall a 
few of the corresponding facts regarding the fauna. The student of 
vertebrates notices the absence, for example, from Ireland of the 
Common Hare (Lepus ewropaeus), the Voles, the Mole, the Weasel, the 
Polecat, the Nightingale, and all reptiles except the Viviparous Lizard. 
The entomologist misses such conspicuous insects as the Stag-beetle 
(Iucanus cervus), the great water beetle Hydrophilus piceus, and 
the Large tortoiseshell buttertly (Vanessa polychloros). These are 
representatives of a group of animals to which the present writer has 
applied the term “ Teutonic fauna,” * while Dr Scharff, in his recent 
1 Proc. R. Irish Acad. (3), vol. iv., pp. 427-514, An excellent summary appeared 
in Nature of October 28th, 1897. 
2 Mem. Gol. Survey Gt. Britain, vol. i., 1846. 
3 Museums Assocn. Report, 1894. 
