November, 7905. The Irish Naturalist. 



225 



IS THE MINNOW A NATIVE OF IRELAND ? 



BY R. F. SCH-VRFF., PH.D., M.R.LA. 



It seems strange that there should be any doubt among 

 naturalists as to whether the Minnow is really a native of 

 Ireland, or whether it has been introduced by man within 

 recent times. Thompson"", who collected information on 

 almost every Irish species of animal with extraordinary perse- 

 verence and industry, could only ascertain the occurrence of 

 the Minnow in the Counties of Dublin and Wicklow. But 

 even there, doubts were entertained at the time that the 

 Minnow was a true native. Professor Kinahan^, for instance, 

 wrote in 1854 that the Minnow swarmed in the Dodder in 

 certain parts, yet he believed that it and the Gudgeon had 

 been introduced from the Swords River about twenty years 

 before. We have his admission, therefore, that about the year 

 1830 the Minnow inhabited the small stream near Swords, 

 which is quite unconnected by canal with any other river 

 system, and to which, unaided by man, it could not have 

 spread. Besides these two streams it is also known in Co. 

 Dublin from the Tolka. From the Dodder and the Tolka the 

 Minnow certainly had an opportunity during the last hundred 

 years, or, at least, since the opening of the Grand and Royal 

 Canals, of spreading throughout a large portion of the plain 

 of Ireland. Yet it seems to occur also in districts quite 

 unconnected with our canal system. 



Thompson states (p, 139) having heard from Dr. Robert 

 Ball in 1846 that Minnow were common in lyough Dan (Co. 

 Wicklow), and that a fisherman had assured the latter that 

 they were as plentiful twenty-five years previously as they 

 were then. 



" Natural History of Ireland," vol. iv., 1856, p. 138. 

 Proc. Dublin Nat. Hist. Soc, vol. i., p 131. 



A 



