616 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. 
and adds: “It is believed they afterwards became quite extinct.” 
Mr. W. S. Keogh tells me of a tradition in Carlow, that a squirrel 
could hop from “Carlow to Kilbride.” Lord Clermont* says he 
“ig not able to form an opinion as to the squirrel being indigenous 
to Ireland.” Mr. Harvie Brown, of Larbert, N.B., states* that Mr. 
Alston (an authority on the British Mammalia) “thinks that 
the introduction of the squirrel into Ireland is not sufficiently 
proved.” So that it is quite evident there is much uncertainty 
about the matter. The word “sesquivolos” occurs in Augustin, 
an Irish writer of the seventh centuryt in his incidental mention 
of Irish animals—but it occurs no where else in any book accor- 
ding to Ducange—and though squirrels have been suggested no 
one can say what it means. The word “ chricharans” occurs in 
a remarkable Irish poem? as old as the ninth century, and it has 
been thought to mean squirrels, but Ivish scholars do not seem to 
be satisfied of its true signification. 
I find that Irish names for squirrel are given in O’Reilly’s Irish 
Dictionary and also in M‘Curtin’s, but in O’Brien’s there is 
no trace of any word standing for squirrel. Giraldus Cambrensis§ 
does not give us any word which could stand for squirrel, but 
O’Flaherty|| in 1684 mentions the squirrel as inhabiting Con- 
naught. K’eogh@ in 1739 gives the squirrel in his list of “birds 
beasts, fishes, reptiles, and insects commonly known and ah 
gated in this kingdom.” Patrick Browne** only gives us a list 
of the birds and fishes, and therefore had not occasion either to 
include or omit the squirrel. Ruttytt in 1772 mentions the 
squirrel saying, “ It is said to have been found in the wood at 
Luttrelstown.” 
All the authorities and old records that I could collect concer- 
ning occurrence of the squirrel in Ireland previous to the nine- 
teenth century, have now been given, and the following are 
reasons for considering them to be erroneous :— 
* In lit. to R.M.B., 1880. 
+ Dr. Reeves, Paper on Augustin, Proc., Royal Irish Acad. Vol. VIL, p. 518. 
t Sir W. Wilde’s Paper, ‘©On the Unmanufactured Animal Remains belonging to the 
Academy,” Proc. Royal Irish Acad. Vol. VII., p. 181. 
§ Topographia Hiberniae. 
|| H’Jar Connaught—Hardiman’s ed. p. 10. 
Zoologia Medicinalis Hibernica, p. 83. 
** Catalogue of Irish Birds and Fishes. Exshaw’s Gentleman’s and London Magazine, 
1774, pp. 385 and 515. 
++ Nat. Hist. Co. Dublin, p. 291. 
