346 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Even Thompson has deemed it worth while to note in his journal 
every locality where he saw or heard a frog. 
The Tree Frog and the Common Toad are entirely absent 
from Ireland; but the Natterjack, Bufo calamita, Schinz, is found 
in some parts of Co. Kerry, and is said to be indigenous, although, 
according to an old account, numbers of them were turned loose 
from a ship at Dingle Bay. In 1836 Dr. Ball placed sixty Natter- 
jacks in the Zoological Gardens, Phcenix Park, but not one was 
ever seen again. Strange to say, this creature seems to be 
dwindling away in many places, as, for instance, in Brandenburg. 
Bombinator igneus is found neither in England nor Ireland. 
Let us now see how tradition and ancient learning account 
for the absence from this country of so many characteristic 
reptiles. As early as 840, St. Donatus, Bishop of Etruria, writes 
of Erin :— 
«‘ Ursorum rabies nulla est ibi; seeva leonum 
Semina nec unquam Scotica terra* tulit : 
Nulla venena noceut, nec serpens serpit in herba, 
Nec conquesta canit garrula rana lacu.” 
Kiittner (‘Briefe iiber Irland, 1785, p.117) remarks :— 
«Poisonous creatures, such as scorpions, snakes, toads, &c., are 
not found anywhere on the island. They have been brought 
there in various ways, but not one has ever lived. No one is 
able to tell me the real cause of this remarkable phenomenon. 
Nor were there any frogs in Ireland. They were first taken there 
in the reign of William III. Even now there are but few, and 
they utter no sound, as on the Continent.” 
Julius Rodenberg (‘Die Insel der Heiligen,’ Berlin, 1860, 
vol. i. p. 322), referring to the passage just quoted, observes :— 
“This is almost precisely what was written by Ricardus Cori- 
nensis, or, as the English call this chronicler, Richard of Ciren- 
cester: ‘No creeping thing is found there (in Ireland), nor any 
vipers or snakes. Snakes, which were often taken thither from 
Kingland, died so soon as they neared the coast. Almost every- 
thing on the island is an antidote to poison, &c.” (Giles, ‘Six 
Old English Chronicles,’ London, 1848, p. 458.) 
Worthy Jacobus Waraeus (born 1594, died 1666), in his 
treatise, ‘De Hibernia et Antiquitatibus ejus Disquisitionis’ (2nd 
* In the Middle Ages the term “ Scotia” was often used to signify Ireland, 
