RED-DEER. 315 



marize this portion of the evidence, which he has 

 printed in some interesting " Notes on Irish Red- 

 deer," in The Zoologist for March, 1882. 



In 1772 Dr. Rutty published, in two volumes 

 octavo, his " Essay towards a Natural History of 

 the County of Dublin," in which it is stated that 

 " the Stag, Hart, or Red-deer, is found here, 

 although much rarer than the Cervus platyceros, 

 the Buck or Fallow-deer, whose horns are palmated." 



In the Rev. George Sampson's works on London- 

 derry (1802-1814), " the native Stag or Red- 

 deer " is noted as having " formerly existed " in that 

 county, but at that date " extinct." In the co. 

 Donegal, also, it is said to have been formerly 

 abundant on the mountains adjacent to Lough 

 Esk.* 



When Thompson was collecting information for 

 the fourth volume of his " Natural History of Ire- 

 land," containing the Mammalia, which was not 

 published until 1856, or four years after his decease, 

 he wrote of the Red-deer : " This species, once 

 abundant over Ireland, is now confined to the 

 wilder parts of Connaught, as Erris and Conne- 

 mara ; and to a few localities in the south, more 

 especially the vicinity of the Lakes of Killarney. 

 When on a tour through the West and South of 

 Ireland in the summer of 1834, I was informed 

 that there were at that time only twenty-five Red- 

 deer in Connaught thirteen of these in Conne- 

 mara, and twelve in the barony of Erris. My 

 informant added that, in the previous year, two full- 

 grown animals (one a stag) were shot with one ball. 



* " Camden's Britannia," ed. Gough, iii. p. 644. 



