THE RABBIT OR CONY 189 



and Buckley). In Caithness it is said to have been plentiful in 1793, 

 but unknown in 1743 (Bruce). Of late years it has spread widely, until 

 it is now as abundant and ubiquitous in Scotland, excepting only the 

 highest hill-tops and the wet flow-lands, as in any other part of the 

 three kingdoms. 



The history of the Rabbit in Ireland is similar to that for Great 

 Britain. The word "lepusculos" occurs in a list of Irish animals given 

 by the ecclesiastic Augustin, who wrote about A.D. 655 {Proc. Roy. 

 Irish Acad., vii., 518, 1862), but this must evidently be interpreted as 

 referring to the Irish Hare. Conies are found in a longer list contained 

 in the Irish poem printed by Wilde {Proc. cit., 188-189) — "Da choinin a 

 Dhumha duinn," i.e., two conies from Dumho Duinn — but this poem, 

 although supposed by Ball {Proc. cit., ii., 541) to be older than A.D. 1000, 

 really dates only, as Kuno Meyer informs me, from about the thirteenth 

 or fourteenth century. The ancient Irish, who were great hunters, and 

 wrote at length of the various beasts of chase, including hares, never 

 mention rabbits, as it is certain they would have done had they known 

 them. The oldest undoubted British reference to them of which I am 

 aware is that of Giraldus Cambrensis, who, as stated above (p. 185), 

 casually alluded to "cuniculi" in 1183-1186, but without definitely 

 including them in the Irish Fauna. The animal's name begins to 

 appear in documents at about the same time as in England, so that the 

 conclusion is that its introduction to Ireland also must be attributed 

 to the Normans. With their warrens, conies are casually noticed in the 

 time of Edward I., viz., between 1274 and 1307 (see Westropp, /'rt'c. 

 cit., XXV., c, 8th March 1905, 343); and in 1282 twenty skins from 

 Balisax (now Ballysax), Co. Kildare, were priced at is. 4d. (Rogers, op. 

 cit, ii., 567) ; and one hundred " great coneys " from the same locality 

 in 1287 at 13s. 4d. {id., ii., 558-559). In 1324 the profits of hunting 

 the " cunicularium " at Rosslare, Co. Wexford, formed a portion of the 

 return of the lands of Aymer de Valence, an item of information for 

 which I am indebted to G. H. Orpen. In the fourteenth and fifteenth 

 centuries the skins had become a regular article of export with those of 

 other mammals, being included in The Libel of English Policy (Political 

 Poems and Songs; Rolls Series, ii., 186), written about 1430: "Felles of 

 kyddeand conies grete plentd." Many later travellers in Ireland record 

 having seen the animals in different parts of the country, as a matter 

 of course. Fynes Moryson, in his " Description of Ireland," about 1600 

 (Falkiner's reprint, in Illustrations of Irish History and Topography, 

 1904, 223), wrote of " great plenty of ... . conies " ; Sir William 

 Brereton saw them on the banks of the river Slaney in the manor of 

 Ollort (now Oulart), Ferns, Co. Wexford, on i6th July 1635 (Falkiner, 

 op. cit, 390) ; and for another notice of them, see below, p. 196. At the 

 Park, near Wexford, on a Mr Hardy's land, rented from William 

 VOL. II. N 2 



