48 Scientitic Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 
RODENTIA. 
Alpine Hare (Lepus variabilis.) 
Remains of this hare, including several long bones, a cranium, 
and fragments of mandibles, were found by Mr. Brenan and my- 
self in Shandon Cave, in connection with the other extinct mam- 
mals. There were besides evidences of gnawing by rodents on 
the bones of Mammoth, Hare, and Reindeer, but the remains of the 
species were not discovered. 
The recent and extinct Rodents of Ireland are remarkably few 
as compared with England.* The above and the Rabbit,f and 
the Long-tailed Field Mouse (Mus sylvaticus). The Squirrel, 
as in the north of Scotland is spreading rapidly, and, 
although affirmed by Thompson to have been indigenous 
before the destruction of the forests, it is said in many in- 
stances to have been introduced into districts. The Black and 
Brown Rats and House Mouse occur in about the same proportions 
as in Great Britain. But of such Scotch and English Rodents, to 
wit, the Field Vole (Arvicola agrestis), the Water Rat (A. amvphi- 
bius),f the Red Field Vole, and Hare, there is no evidence of 
their having been found in Ireland, nor the Dormouse, hitherto 
confined to England. Of the extinct species, the Beaver, which 
was plentiful in Scotland and England, was not only unknown in 
Ireland during historical times, but there is no evidence of its re- 
mains having been found in a fossil state in the island, whilst the 
Norwegian and Greenland Lemmings (Myodes lemmus and M. 
torquatus) of English post Tertiary deposits, the Pouched Marmot 
(Spermophilus erythrogenoides) seemingly scarcely separable from 
the S. erythrogenys, the Cave Pika (Lagomys spelaeus), the 
Champagnol (Arvicola arvalis), and the Scandinavian Vole (A. 
vatticeps) have hitherto been discovered only in English caverns. 
* JT am indebted to Mr. Altson, F.L.S., for valued information regarding the 
distributions of several British rodents. 
+ The so-called Irish rat is only a variety of M. rattus, and the same applies to the 
Trish hare and L. variabilis. 
t Dr. Bryce (British Association Reports 1834, p. 658) includes bones of the Water 
Rat, along with other eavvi@ from a cave in the county Antrim, but unless verified by 
scrupulously careful comparisons, the exact determinations of Muride are yery 
difficult to make out. 
