NOTES AND QUERIES. 29 



such examples as I may then possess. — Alfred Heneage Cocks (Poy- 

 netfcs, Skirmett, near Henley-on-Thames). 



Is the Weasel a Native of Ireland ? — A period of twenty-nine years 

 has now elapsed since this question was discussed in the pages of ' The 

 Zoologist ' for 1877, and yet, up to the present date, has not been 

 decided in the affirmative, because none of the persons who alleged 

 they had seen Weasels in Ireland have sustained and corroborated 

 their statements by the production of an Irish-killed specimen in the 

 flesh, with an authentic record of the dates and localities of capture. 

 While in proof of its not being a native, we have the fact of there not 

 being a specimen in any of the public museums, nor, as far as I am 

 aware of, in any private collection either ; and also our best naturalists 

 did not believe in its being a native. The late Dr. Ball, (I believe the 

 first) Director of the Dublin Museum, never saw an Irish specimen. 

 Neither did the late William Thompson, of Belfast, who, writing to me 

 as far back as Sept. 28th, 1851, says : " The Weasel is not known as 

 an Irish animal." My old and valued friends, the late Dr. A. Carte 

 and Mr. A. G. More, both for many years Directors of the Dublin 

 Museum, never saw one. Neither did my old friend Dr. J. B. Harvey, 

 of Cork, who during a long life accumulated the finest collection of 

 natural history specimens in the South of Ireland ; and he, writing to 

 me in September, 1877, says: "I never saw the Weasel in Ireland, 

 and I don't believe we have it. I have had over and over again to 

 prove to people that what they thought to be Weasels were in reality 

 Stoats, and, like yourself, have still to look for the pleasure of behold- 

 ing an Irish Weasel." So the matter rested in 1877. However, in 

 ' The Zoologist' for 1894, the question again turned up in a very in- 

 teresting article by Mr. J. E. Harting, " On the Weasel and its Habits " 

 (pages 417 and 445), when, after speaking of it in England and Scot- 

 land, he quotes from letters of various correspondents asserting they 

 had seen Weasels in various parts of Ireland — some promising speci- 

 mens, but, as far as I am aware, none were produced in evidence of 

 their statements. I have never met a specimen myself, and have 

 questioned shooting men, keepers, rabbit-trappers, &c, in various parts 

 of the country, but never could obtain satisfactory proof of a Weasel 

 being obtained by any of them. However, as rabbit-trapping has 

 become so universal and widespread for the past thirty years through- 

 out Ireland wherever there are burrows of any extent, it is manifestly 

 impossible that this little animal could exist in the country without 

 some specimens being taken along with the numbers of Stoats trapped 

 every season. — Robert Warren (Moy View, Ballina). 



