NOTES FROM YORKSHIRE. 353 
enclosures were made chiefly for the protection of cattle against 
Wolves, and that the latter were not entirly extirpated in Ireland 
until about the year 1710. 
Oppian, in his ‘Cynegeticon,’ describes the Scotch terrier, but 
not the Irish wolf-hound. Symachus (about a.p. 500) refers to 
seven Irish dogs which were sent in iron cages to Rome, where 
their strength and fierceness excited great admiration. 
From a paper in the ‘Linnean Transactions’ (vol. iii.) by 
A. Burke Lambert, in which he describes and figures a dog in the 
possession of Lord Altamount [son of the Marquis of Sligo], it 
appears that the Irish wolf-hound had wide pendant ears, hanging 
lips, a hollow back, thick body, smooth hide, &c. Judging from 
this description it certainly differs from the Irish greyhound, 
which seems to have become entirely extinct.* 
Of the domestic cat I may repeat what I have remarked 
regarding the cats of Italy, France, England, and certain parts of 
South Germany, in contrast to North Germany—it is respected 
equally by men and dogs. 
Whether the Wild Cat (Felis catus) occurs in Ireland, as in 
Scotland, is at present matter for conjecture. Cats which have 
run wild are occasionally caught, and resemble the male Wild 
Cat in many respects, but not in all.+ 
(To be continued.) 
ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM YORKSHIRE. 
By Witu1am EHaGie CLARKE. 
THE unusually severe weather that characterised the latter 
days of 1878 and the first two months of 1879 was most disastrous 
to many forms of bird life. Thrushes, Blackbirds, and Redwings, 
more especially the latter, perished in great numbers; this was 
particularly evident at Spurn Point,—that narrow neck of sand 
and bents which forms the south-eastern limit of our county,—to 
which great numbers of these species resort, being attracted by 
the Helicide abounding there. This state of things was duly 
taken advantage of by the villainous Grey Crows, which were 
frequently observed in pursuit of the starved Thrushes, which, of 
* It is now generally admitted that the dog described by Lambert, here referred 
to, was not an Irish Wolf-hound at all, but a “ Great Dane.”—Ep. 
+ Several so-called “ Wild Cats” in Ireland proved to be Martens.—Ep. 
22 
