194 
panying cuts, from No.1, give a faithful representation. Itis nearly 11in. 
in length, measured from the end of the occipital ridge to the alveolar pro- 
cess at the roots of the upper incisors, and is principally ' 
characterized by the magnitude of the crest. The pro- 
file view of the outline and the prolonged muzzle rather 
tends to the belief of its having belonged to the true 
Trish wolf-dog, or large rough-coated hound, of an iron- 
gray colour, of former times, examples of which may 
still be seen in Scotland and the Hebrides. The Irish | 
hound ( Canis Hibernicus), or Milcht, so loudly extolled 
by our writers, is now nearly, if not altogether, ex- 
tinct in this country. 
There are five dogs’ 
heads in the collec- 
tion. Nos. 1, 2, and 3 
_ are each about the 
#3 same size, viz.,11 in., 
Te measured round the surface of the bone, 
Hise as stated above. No. 8 had during life 
disease of the bone between the orbits, possibly the result of accident. 
Nos. 4 and 5 are small heads of the same variety, possibly those of females. 
They measure about 9 inches over the same line as in the foregoing. In 
No. 5 the occipital crest is proportionably not so large. The lower 
jaws are wanting in all. These five crania were found in the Dun- 
shaughlin crannoge, and were presented by me in 1842. 
Among the remaining carnivora still existing, and likely to have 
occupied the attention of man, were the fox (Vulpes vulgaris), the 
Stnnach, nech is sine do conaib, the longest-lived of dogs,* or Mad- 
aidh ruadh, the red dog; also the badger (Meles vulgaris, or ML. taxus), 
and in the native tongue Broce ;} and the otter (Lutra vulgaris), the 
Madaidh wisce, or Dobharcht, the water-dog, or water-hound. In this 
list might also with propriety be included the seal (Phoca vitulina, and 
P. halicherus),{ called in Irish Ron. This latter gives names to many 
localities, such as Rinn Réin, the point or promontory of the seal; 
Carrig na Ron,the seal’s rock, now called ‘‘ The Beeyes,” in the mouth 
of the Shannon, &e. &e. 
The marten (Martinus abietum) formerly abounded in our woods, 
and a few still exist in some localities where portions of the ancient fo- 
rests remain, among which I may specify Ballykyne, near Cong, in the 
county of Mayo, and Kylemore, Connemara, county of Galway. It affords 
an ornamental fur, not without its value even at the present day.§ Like 
* See the copy of Cormac’s Glossary, in H. 2. 16, col. 82, in Library T. C. D. 
+ The badger is called broc in old Saxon also, and barsuk in the Russian. See “TheTale 
of Deirdre,” where this Irish beauty talks of feeding on badger’s flesh.—Trausactions of 
the Gaelic Society, vol. i. 
t See Dr. Bail’s Paper in Trans., R. I. A., vol. xviii. 
§ Peter Lombard enumerates martens’ skins among the exports from Ireland in the 
sixteenth century. See ‘‘ Anthologia Hibernica,” vol. i. p. 121; also p. 45, of this paper. 
