34 MAMMALIA. 



ground in this country' for a longer period than in any other part of the 

 empire. Campion, whose History of Ireland was published in 1570, in- 

 forms us that wolves were objects of the chase. 'They' (the Irish) 'are 

 not,' he says, ' without wolves or greyhounds to hunt them ; bigger of bone 

 and limme than a colt.' A century later they appear to have been equally 

 abundant, for we find by the journals of the House of Commons that in 

 1662 Sir John Ponsonby reported from the Committee of Grievances, that 

 a bill should be brought in to encourage the killing of wolves and foxes. 

 Effective measures for this purpose appear to have been taken, and the 

 wolf was at last extirpated about the year 1710. Dr. Smith, in his History 

 of Kerry, when speaking of certain ancient enclosures, observes that 

 ' many of them were made to secure cattle from wolves, which animals 

 were not finally extirpated till the year 1710, as I find by presentments for 

 raising money for destroying them in some old grand-jury books.'" 



Three places in Ireland are commemorated, each as having had the last 

 Irish wolf killed there, viz. one in the south ; another near Glenarm ; 

 and the third (Wolfhill) three miles from Belfast. 



That noble race of domestic animals the Irish wolf-dog, so successfully 

 used in the pursuit of wolves, has, since no longer required, been neglected, 

 and must now, I fear, be called extinct. In reference to this animal, 

 Dr. Scouler gives the following notice (p. 266) : — 



" The wolf-dog must now be inchided in the list of lost animals, although 

 the date of its disappearance is within the memory of people still living. This 

 race appears to have been ^mkno^^^l to the Romans, although that people appear 

 to have put a high value on British dogs. Oppian, who has given a good de- 

 scription of the Scotch terrier, does not notice the Irish wolf-dog. Perhaps the 

 Irish wolf-dog is alhided to by Symmachus, a writer of the 4th century, who in- 

 forms us that seven Irish hounds (Septem Scotii Canes) were exhibited in the 

 circus at Rome, where they excited admiration on account of their strength and 

 fierceness. The Irish wolf-dog was a very distinct race from the Scotch hound 

 or wolf-dog, which resembled the Irish breed in size and courage, but differed 

 from it by having a sharper muzzle and pendent ears." 



[Notes from Scrope's Art of Deerstalking.] 



Irish Wolf-dog, Irish Greyhound, Highland Deerhound, and Scotch Greyhound 

 are the same.- — p. 334. See also pp. 341, 342, for proof of Irish wolf-dog and 

 Irish greyhound being the same. 



" It appears from Symmachus that in the foTirth century a number of dogs, of 

 a great size, were sent in iron cages from Ireland to Rome. * * It is not im- 

 probable that the dogs so sent were greyhounds, particularly as we learn from the 

 authority of Evelyn and others that the Irish wolf-dog was used for the fights of 

 the bear-garden " (p. 335). 



"Judging also from the drawing of Lord Altamont's dogs given by Mr. 

 Lambert (Linnean Transactions, vol. iii.), and from the measurement taken by 

 liim hi 1790, it is evident that these wolf-dogs, as they are called, bore no re- 

 semblance whatever to the Irish greyhound, as described by Holinshed, with 

 which also they hmited wolves, as is apparent from their broad pendulous ears, 

 hanging lips, hollow backs, heavy bodies, smooth hair, straight hocks, drooping 

 tails, and party colour; but were in all probability a remnant of the old Irish 

 bloodhound, which was frequently used for tracking wolves, and which, at a 

 later period, might have been mistaken for a species then in that country nearly, 

 if not altogether, extinct." 



Buffon mentions his having seen an Irish greyhound in France, " which 

 appeared, when sitting, to be about five feet high, and resembled in figure the 

 Danish dog, but greatly exceeded him in stature. He was totally white, and 



