436 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
visited, and so forth, we come to its natural productions; and 
one of the first passages which strikes us (cap. vi.) is a refutation 
of Bede’s statement that the Roe-deer was a native of Ireland.* 
Giraldus says this is not the case, and to the present day no 
traces of this animal have been found there. 
Noticing the marine and fresh-water fish (cap. ix., x.) he refers 
to three kinds not found elsewhere—that is, peculiar to Ireland :— 
“Sunt enim quidam truttis, que et salares [Salmon] dicuntur, 
longiores et rotundiores, albis carnibus confertis et sapidis; 
thymallis qui vulgariter umbre [Grayling, or Umber] dicuntur, 
persimiles, nisi quod capite degenerant grossiore. Sunt et alii, 
marino haleci tam forma et quantitate, quam colore et sapore 
simillimi. Sunt et tertii truttis, nisi quod maculis carent, per 
omnia similes; primos ‘ Glassanos,' secundos ‘ Catos,’ tertius vero 
‘ Bricios’ vocant.” 
He adds that these three kinds were only met with in summer 
and never in winter; that is, they were migratory. 
Passing on to the Birds (cap. ix. to xxiii.) he refers first to 
the falcons and hawks, for which Ireland in the palmy days of 
falconry was celebrated, noticing by the way that amongst birds 
of prey the female is generally larger than the male, and calling 
attention to the various phases of plumage which the Sparrow- 
hawk undergoes, and to the different mode in which the short- 
winged hawks and long-winged falcons take their prey, all of 
which observations are found to be exact at the present day. 
A long chapter on the Eagle (cap. xiii.) is followed by one on 
the Crane (cap. xiv.) a bird which, according to Giraldus, might 
be seen in large flocks in Ireland in his day. “In tanta vero 
numerositate se grues ingerunt,” he says, “ut uno in grege centum, 
et circiter hunc numerum, frequenter invenias.” 
He repeats the story which says that the Crane is of so 
watchful a nature that a sentinel is always posted while the flock 
is at rest, and that the sentinel stands with a stone in one foot, 
so that in case he should fall asleep the fall of the stone would 
rouse him. The ancient legend, too, of the Bernicle Goose and 
its supposed generation from old sea-timber finds a place (cap. xv.) 
* Bede, it may be observed, was never in Ireland himself, and his 
brief allusions to the fere nature of the country were derived from 
hearsay. See ‘The Book of Howth,’ Brewer and Bullen, Calendar Carew 
MSS., p. 82. 
