^9^5- SCHARFF. — Is the Mi7i7iozv a Native of Ireland ? 227 



speak with authority ou the fishes of the district. He writes 

 that he believes the Minnow to be an introduced species, 

 since it seems to be only found in streams convenient to 

 trout rivers or lakes. He further states that it is common in 

 a stream near Oughterard, and that it is used by the Corrib 

 fishermen when trolling for Trout. According to Mr. Wheeler, 

 the Minnow was put into this river by Dudley Persse about 

 thirty-seven years ago. At the same time he admits that two 

 attempts to introduce the species into a small stream at Salt- 

 hill near Galway city, failed, probably owing to the water 

 being too shallow. 



In 1892 a specimen of the Minnow was sent to the National 

 Museum by the Rev. A. H. Delap, of Strabane. He tells me 

 that this fish is common in the Mourne River, County Tyrone, 

 close to Strabane, but that he remembers having heard from 

 the Duke of Abercorn that Minnows were formerly put into 

 the lake at Baron's Court, which communicates with the 

 Mourne River. They may possibly have spread down stream 

 in this manner. 



Twenty years ago Mr. J. D. Ogilby\ a distinguished Irish 

 zoologist, wrote that nowhere had he seen Minnows in greater 

 abundance than in the River Maine and in the Kells Water in 

 County Antrim, and that he considered the theory of its intro- 

 duction as excessively doubtful. 



That Minnows also occur in many other rivers in the County 

 Antrim is probable. At any rate Mr. Barney Meenan, of 

 Muckamore, forwarded me some .splendid specimens from the 

 Six-mile Water, and states that Minnows have been in the 

 river as long as the people of the district can remember, and 

 that they also occur in the River Maine and on the lyower Bann. 

 All these river systems communicate with lyOUgh Neagh. 



Going further south along the east coast into the Counties 

 of Meath and lyOUth, the Minnow turns up again. It was in 

 1879 that an old member of Dublin Museum staff, Mr. John 

 Boshell, discovered it in the Corkey River in Co. lyOUth, and 

 brought specimens to the Museum. And later on in 1888 

 some were deposited in the Museum by Mr. James Duff'y, 

 another member of our staff, who took them in I^ake Mentrim 



I Proc. K. Dublin Soc, vol iv. (N.vS) 1885, p. 531. 



A 'J 



