CONTRIBUTIONS TO A VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF THE 

 ISLE OF MAN. 



By P. M. C. Kekmode. 



The situation of the Isle of Man makes it an interesting 

 district for the naturalist. If its vertebrate fauna is not exten- 

 sive, its limitations are suggestive. Bishop Wilson, writing for 

 Gibson's edition of Camden, published in 1772, says : — " There 

 are several noxious animals, such as badgers, foxes, otters, 

 filmerts, moles, hedge-hogs, snakes, toads, &c, which the 

 inhabitants know no more of than their names." The absence 

 of reptiles is not more striking than the absence of fresh -water 

 fish; and in every department of Zoology one is impressed by the 

 affinities of our fauna with that of the district, — the most 

 distant of the surrounding lands : — Ireland, so much so, that if 

 a form is not to be found in Ireland, it is useless looking for it as 

 indigenous in the Isle of Man. 



With respect to our fish, Prof. Edward Forbes contributed a 

 brief account of the Natural History of the island to Quiggin's 

 1 Illustrated Guide,' 1842, in which he mentions some rare forms 

 not since recorded. Mr. R. Garner, in his ' Holiday Excursions 

 of a Naturalist,' 1864, referred to several, adding the Blue 

 Shark, and one or two others not rare. In 1885 Mr. J. C. 

 Crellin presented a revised list to our local Natural History 

 Society, to which I am not able to add more than five species. 

 In arrangement and nomenclature I have followed Day, in his 

 1 Fishes of Great Britain and Ireland,' 1880-84. 



Of mammals, the only extinct species whose remains are now 

 found is the Irish 'Elk,' Cervus megaceros, of which a fine speci- 

 men from Ballaugh, Isle of Man— the first complete skeleton 

 ever put together — is to be seen in the Edinburgh Museum. 

 The Red Deer is recorded as having been introduced, but has long 

 since disappeared. In 1885 I contributed a list of mammals 

 to our Natural History Society, and it was published afterwards 

 in the ' Manx Note Book.' I am not yet able to add any species, 

 except the Long-eared Bat, which I then believed to be present, 

 and have since had, both dead and alive. 



