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A GERMAN VIEW OF THE FAUNA OF IRELAND. 
By Ernst FRIEDEL.* ° 
I. Dusuin, THE Hast End; Poa@nix Park AND THE ZooLOGICAL GARDENS. 
Tue Pheenix Park is to Dublin what the Prater is to Vienna, 
or the Thiergarten to Berlin. Clement, in his ‘ Reisen in Irland’ 
(Kiel, 1845), observes, ‘“‘ Dublin may well boast of her Phoenix 
Park, for there is no other in Europe to compare with it, com- 
bining as it does in its great extent extreme beauty, picturesque 
views, variety and undulation, and an abundance of different 
objects of interest.” Situated on the Liffey to the west of the 
capital, it contains 1750 acres and has a circumference of seven 
English miles. Its beautiful clumps of old trees are surrounded, 
after the English fashion, by far-spreading grassy lawns, whose 
verdure, owing to the mild, damp climate of the Emerald Isle, 
surpasses even that of the English parks. Whole herds of 
cattle may: be seen grazing undisturbed ; for the custom of stocking 
the park-lands with fine cattle prevails here as in England, 
Holland, Belgium, and the North of France; a custom which 
might well be adopted in Germany also. It encourages cattle- 
breeding, and makes good use of the grass; while visitors, 
especially children, are thankful for the opportunity of a drink of 
fresh milk, at a small charge. Farther on I saw herds of Fallow 
Deer, which are very tame. The Red Deer are not much kept in 
Irish parks, for they soon get wild and even dangerous when only 
half-domesticated. The Fallow Deer is considered to have been 
introduced into Ireland; and this may be connected with the fact 
that here, as in Germany, it proves delicate, and is often subject 
to epidemics and great mortality after wet, cold winters. It is 
true that remains of the Fallow Deer have once been found at a 
considerable depth in a bog in Co. Antrim (as in a similar case 
they have been found in marl near Potsdam), but old Roman 
coins, modern buttons, flint implements, &c., may also be found 
in Irish bogs, and nothing is proved by the discovery of the 
remains of a single deer. 
*«Thierleben und Thierpflegen in Irland. Reisebemerkungen von Ernst 
Friedel in Berlin.” ‘Der Zoologische Garten,’ Jahrgang xix, 271—277, 366—875 ; 
xx. 1l44—149, 270—275, 309—314, . 
