OT i ee el 
_Y 
THE ZOOLOGIST. 
THIRD SERIES. 
Vout. V.] NOVEMBER, 1881. [No. 59. 
THE ANNALS OF IRISH ZOOLOGY. 
By THE Epiror. 
ConsipERING how wide a field of research lies open to the 
naturalist in Ireland, it is not a little remarkable how much that 
country in this respect has been neglected. In the case of nearly 
all the standard and more important works relating to the Zoology 
of the British Islands, it is apparent that by far the greater 
portion of the materials utilised in their composition have been 
collected and arranged from observations made in England. To 
this statement, no doubt, a few notable exceptions may be made, 
as in the case of such works as those of Macgillivray, Sir William 
Jardine, and William Thompson, of Belfast ; but the fact remains 
that, as compared with the voluminous zoological literature 
relating to England, Irish records in this respect are very scanty. 
Under the mistaken notion that British Natural History is worked 
out, many English naturalists, anxious to find some new field for 
their labours, have travelled in distant lands and spent years in 
investigating the fauna of countries little known or little explored ; 
until, through the medium of their publications, often splendidly 
and expensively illustrated, we have come to know more of the 
characteristic animals of the antipodes than we do of those by 
which we are, so to say, surrounded. It appears at least singular 
that a tolerably well-informed zoologist of the present day should 
experience no difficulty in supplying a list of Australian mammals, 
or Ceylonese birds, and yet be unable to decide, for instance, 
whether the Wild Cat, the Weasel, or the Harvest Mouse are 
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