356 REPORT—1840. 
Sparide,and Tenioidee. In fresh-water fishes there is, com- 
pared with England, a remarkable poverty in the species of 
Cyprinide ; yet, leaving out of the question geological in- 
fluences, there are in certain portions of Ireland lakes and 
rivers apparently well suited to this family. Scotland too is 
very deficient in the Cyprinide. 
In the following catalogue of the vertebrate animals of Ire- 
land about 420 species are included; namely, of Mammalia, 
302; Aves, 2302; Reptilia, 2; Amphibia, 4; Pisces, 150?; 
omitting in each class all extinct and naturalized species. To 
take a general review of the Irish Vertebrata, as known at 
present—and every year several species are added to the cata- 
logue—and of the causes of the absence of species found in 
Great Britain, it is believed that the physical geography and 
climate of the island will account for that of only one or two. 
The want of old timber over the country might be considered 
an obstacle to the presence of certain Mammalia and Birds, 
as the Cheiroptera, or Bats, a large proportion of the British 
species of which inhabit old trees ; the Squirrel, &c. In Birds, 
the Picide, or Woodpeckers, their congeners, and some others. 
The absence of all species which would not be affected by any 
of the above circumstances, and which we really have not, 
seems to me to be attributable to geographical distribution 
alone; thus, as the shores of continental Europe on the same 
parallels of latitude as Great Britain are the western boundary 
to many vertebrate animals unknown to that island, so again 
are the shores of the latter the extreme western boundary to 
many species unknown to Ireland *. 
Note 1.—The North-east of Ireland and South-west of 
Scotland, although divided by so narrow a channel, are zoolo- 
gically very different. ‘The species unknown to me as Irish, 
but of which I have seen examples from the opposite coast, 
are, the Polecat (Mustela Putorius), Mole (Talpa europea), 
Ciliated Shrew (Sorex ciliatus), the three species of Campa- 
gnol (Arvicola amphibia, A. agrestis, and A. riparia), and the 
common Hare (Lepzus timidus)—the Black Grouse (Tetrao 
Tetrix)—the Blind-worm (Anguis fragilis), Adder or Viper 
(Pelius Berus), and Toad (Bufo vulgaris). 
In the genera to which the animals just mentioned belong, 
Ireland is known to possess but one species which is not found 
in Scotland, the Lepus hibernicus, and of the terrestrial Mam- 
malia generally, but one other, Mus hibernicus: of the com- 
* Several species of British Birds are either not found in the West of En- 
gland, or become rare towards that quarter; as the Nightingale, Nuthatch, 
Wryneck, Kentish Plover, Stork, &c. 
