A GERMAN VIEW OF THE FAUNA OF IRELAND. 391 
on the west side of Ulleswater.* The deer of the Hebrides are 
even smaller than those of Scotland. In Sweden, the Red-deer 
is rare, and not so large as in North Germany. The stag of 
Norway is smaller again than his Scandinavian brother. The 
stags of Corsica and Sardinia are also described as of diminutive 
size. 
O'Flaherty, in his ‘ History of H’Iar-Connaught,’ 1684 (p. 121), 
writes :—‘“‘ Next Mam-en are the mountains of Corcoga, on the 
confines of Ballynahynsy, Rosse, and Moycullin countreys, where 
the fat deere is frequently hunted; whereof no high mountain in 
the barony of Ballynahynsy, or half barony of Ross, is destitute.” 
In old chronicles, the Irish stag is described as “very large, 
fleet, and fierce.” Dr. Thos. Molyneux, a friend of O'Flaherty, 
remarked, in a paper on the large antlers frequently found buried 
in Ireland, that, in his day, the Red-deer was becoming scarcer 
than had ever yet been known, and expressed the opinion that 
unless care were taken, its extinction was to be feared. He 
alludes to a certain plague or epidemic which had decimated the 
Reindeer in Lapland. Hardiman, the editor of O'’Flaherty’s 
work, suggests (1846) that similar epidemics may also have 
diminished the Irish deer, and mentions an old man still living 
who had seen Red-deer abounding in the Barony of Ross, in 
HIar-Connaught, in his younger days; they grazed with the 
black cattle on the mountains. One stag had so entangled his 
antlers in a thicket that, being held a prisoner, he perished there. 
The mountains which for two miles border the lakes of Killarney, 
under the name of Glena, are now their chief resort. Here a 
stag is often driven into the water, and captured and bound with 
great rejoicing; after which he is brought out in triumph, 
marked with a particular sign, and once more set at liberty, to 
the delight of the assembled multitude. 
In Trish legends the Doe, and especially the White Doe, plays 
the same favoured, almost sacred, part that she does amongst 
Teutonic races. An equivalent for the lost Red-deer of Ireland 
is now being sought in the more tractable Fallow-deer, which 
there becomes a tame and park-loving animal; and the flesh of 
* Can any correspondent inform us whether the Red-deer is still found in 
Martindale Forest, and if so in what numbers? ‘The author has omitted to 
mention the Red-deer of Devon and Somerset.—ED, 
