I92I. ScHARFF. — The Earliest Irish Zoologist. 129 



The writings of this remarkable Irish monk were 

 pubhshed as an appendix to the third volume of the collected 

 works of Saint Augustine, because they were formerly 

 ascribed to that eminent divine. The volumes made their 

 appearance in Paris in 1837 and the appendix is entitled 

 " De mirahilihus sacrae scripturae lihri tres." The 

 manuscript is known to have been written by " August inus 

 hibernus " as he is sometimes called, in the year 655.^ 



In the first part or book the author comments on the 

 creation of heaven and earth, of the beasts, birds and fishes, 

 and of man. He then dwells on the nature of the flood 

 and on the accommodation provided for the beasts and 

 birds in the ark. His acute observations tend to show 

 that he was a keen naturalist who carefully pondered over 

 all the difficulties connected with the biblical account of 

 the origin of our fauna. I may be excused for quoting the 

 exact Latin words of the author as in some cases I may 

 have mistaken their correct rendering in English. On 

 page 2726 the discussion is continued as follows : — 



" De animalibus quoque quae nec in terra tantum, nec in aqua tantum 

 vivere possunt, quaestio vertitur, quomodo diluvium evaserunt, quales 

 sunt lutri, vituli marini, et multum avium genera, quae in aquis escarum 

 suarum victum requirunt, sed in arena dormiunt et nutriuntur, et 

 requiescunt. Si ergo area includerentur sine aquarum adjumento vivere 

 non possent : et si extra arcam remanerant, aquis universa tegentibus, 

 ubi requiescerent quomodo haberent ? " 



In other words Augustine was puzzled how such animals 

 as the otter and the seal fared during the flood. If a pair 

 of each had been taken into the ark they could not have 

 lived, he thinks, without an ample supply of water. If 

 they remained outside where and in what manner did they 

 survive the flood ? 



. What next follows constitutes the most interesting part 

 of Augustine's speculations, for it directty concerns the 

 Irish fauna and its origin. Many pages of the Irish 

 Naturalist' contain discussions on this subject, and it has 

 been the principal aim of the writers to show that many 

 of the animals now existing in Ireland could only have 

 reached this country by means of a former land connection 



1 1 am indebted to Mr. de Burgh of the Trinity College Library for 

 permission to study this valuable work. 



