423 
All these heads differ from those figured in Cuvier’s 
Ossemens Fossiles ; and Mr. Wilde regretted that he was at 
present unable to draw the necessary comparisons between 
the existing breeds and those found at Dunshaughlin, from 
the want of a collection of the heads of the former in the 
museums of this country, and from our not possessing any 
work having accurate plates of the anatomical characters 
of the horned cattle, although it is upon such characters that 
the zoologist and the cattle-breeder found their distinctions. 
A great number of these heads are broken in the centre of 
the forehead, as if by some blunt instrument—apparently 
the mode of slaughter. It might naturally be expected that 
the best breeds and the largest assemblage of these animals 
should be found (even at an early period) upon the fertile and 
extensive plains of Meath; and the whole collection offers 
an incontestible proof, that at a remote period Ireland 
possessed not only several varieties of horned cattle, but also 
breeds analogous to those most valued in England at the 
present day, and lately re-introduced into this country. 
The animal, whose remains were found in the greatest 
abundance next to the ox, was the pig—several of the heads 
of which were produced, of all ages and sizes, but of a 
smaller description than those at present bred in this country. 
There were one or two specimens of the horse and ass. 
The bones of a number of deer were likewise found in the 
collection, both male and female. The former, some of the 
antlers of which are quite perfect, prove the race to have 
been the common deer ; and in no instance were the horns of 
the Fallow deer found—verifying the general opinion of natu- 
ralists, that the latter are an introduced race into this country. 
Large quantities of the bones of goats of all ages were dug 
up. The head of a four-horned sheep was also discovered 
in the same locality, of a peculiar form, to be described here- 
after ; this was the only instance of the sheep that Mr. 
Wilde had been able to procure. 
