ON THE FAUNA OF IRELAND. 361 
Lutterel’s Town.” In the same work it is observed in vol. i. 
p- 277, that ‘a vulgar error has prevailed, mentioned at Jon- 
ston’s Historia Animalium, that the Dormouse was not found 
in Ireland,” &c.; a sort of description of the animal follows, 
but by no means proving it to be a Myoxus. Mus minutus 
cannot be announced as Irish; but a native animal was once 
described to me which would agree with it; M. sylvaticus and 
M. Musculus are both too common over the island. The ani- 
mal provisionally called Mus hibernicus* is now so rare that I 
have been able to obtain for examination but one specimen, 
which is insufficient to establish it properly as a distinct spe- 
cies; M. Rattus, though very rare, is stated to occur occa- 
sionally in various parts of the island. 
. In his Natural History-of Dublin, Rutty states that the Mus 
decumanus ‘first began to infest these parts about the year 
1722.” (vol. i. 281.) It has long since overspread the island. 
Fam. Leporide. 
Ireland. Great Britain. 
0 Lepus timidus, Z. 
0 » variabilis, Pall. 
Lepus hibernicus, Bell. 0 
Cuniculus, LZ. + 
The only species of Hare known as Irish is the L. hiber- 
_nicus, which is common throughout the island, as is likewise 
LL. Cuniculus+. 
= 
Order 5.—Percoraf. 
e 
4 , Fam. Cervide §. 
Mi Ireland. Great Britain. 
Cervus Elaphus, L. 
. 0 Cervus Capreolus, Z. 
_ * Proceedings Zool. Soc. London, 1837, p. 52. 
z - + This animal passes under the names of burrow and bush Rabbit in the North 
of Ireland. ‘These are distinguished from each other accordingly as they bur- 
Yow in the ground in the ordinary manner, or live in “forms” like the Hare 
among bushes or underwood. This departure from their natural habit is, I con- 
' teive, only resorted to where the soil is unsuited to burrowing. In the Annals 
of Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 362, a notice will be found on the subject of Hares bur- 
rowing in an exposed situation on the western coast of Ireland, to which they 
_ were introduced, and where they could not otherwise find shelter. 
__ ¢ Bos Taurus, L. The remains of a race of Oxen, believed to be peculiar to 
oo are found in our bogs. The distinguishing characters are, “the con- 
“Vexity of the upper part of the forehead, its great proportional length, and the 
“shortness and downward direction of thehorns.” See an abstract of a paper by 
Mr. R. Ball, “On the Remains of Oxen found in the Bogs of Ireland,”’ in the 
: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, January 28, 1839. 
 § Cervus Dama, L. Smith, in his History of Kerry, notices herds of Fallow 
Deer as frequenting the “mountains” in that county. But as these are the 
haunts not of this animal, but of the Stag or Red Deer (C. Elaphus), the latter 
