208 
were, however, found in the great bone cave at Shandon, along with 
those of the elephant. 
The hare, the Lepus Hibernicus of Thomson, called in Irish gearr 
Jiadh (the short deer), usually pronounced gearreadh, and in some places 
miol-muirghe (the animal of the plain), and the rabbit, conneen (the little 
hound), are both, in all probability, contemporaneous with man. There 
is reason to believe that we had the squirrel in abundance in our native 
woods in former times ; it has been reintroduced latterly. 
Swine (Sus scrofa, in Irish Muc) no doubt existed in Ireland in a wild 
and domesticated state from the very earliest times, and have ever since 
contributed largely to the wealth of the people. The wild hog (Zore 
fiadhain) abounded in the woods, which formerly covered so large a 
portion of the surface of the country, and fed upon the acorns and beech- 
mast; hence the frequent mention in our ancient annals of the failures 
of these crops, as well as the years in which they abounded. Yet it is 
remarkable that among the copious entries respecting epizootics affect- 
ing other animals, a mortality of swine is only mentioned four times 
anterior to the present century, viz., A.D. 1040, 1088, 1138, and 1741. 
Pigs were given as tribute to the King of Emania, as stated in the 
‘‘Leabhar-na g-Ceart,” where we read of ‘1000 hogs from their territo- 
ries;” also “‘hogs not fit for journeying from their fatness;” ‘“‘ hogs 
of broad sides,” and ‘‘bull-like hogs,”’ with ‘‘ sows for the sty,” &. Gi- 
raldus Cambrensis says, in his ‘‘ Topographia Hiberniz :”—‘ In no part 
of the world have I seen such an abundance of boars and forest hogs. They 
are, however, small, misshapen, wary, no less degenerated by their fero- 
city and venomousness than by the formation of their bodies.” Among 
the restrictions put upon one of the kings of Ulster, in the Book of 
Rights, so frequently alluded to, was, that he was not to go into the 
“wild boar’s hunt, or to be seen to attack it alone.’ Very many places 
in Treland are called after pigs, such as Sliabh-na-muice, in Tipperary ; 
Gleann-na-muice-duibhe, near Newry ; Ceann-tuire, in the county of Cork. 
The names Muckross and Tore, at Killarney, are derived from the same 
root. The name Muckalagh enters largely into Irish topographical 
, names, and signifies a place where pigs fed,—probably on acorns. 
The Irish pig, such as it existed thirty years ago, has become almost 
extinct, having been replaced by imported breeds of a more profitable 
character.* Several heads of swine have been found in peat-bogs, also in 
the great Dunshaughlin bone-heap, and in different other crannoges, as 
well as in the deepening of rivers, &c. But the anatomical resem- 
blance between the wild boar and an aged domesticated animal of the 
ancient breed is so great, that it is difficult to distinguish the one from 
the other. Compared with veritable specimens of the ancient wild boar 
of Northern Europe, as found in the peat-mosses of Scandinavia, espe- 
cially in Zeeland, ours appears to have been a very diminutive animal. 
- 
* See the author’s dissertation on the Pig in the “‘ Dublin University Magazine” 
for March, 1854. 
