192T. ScHARFF. — The Earliest Irish Zoologist. 131 



large demesnes near Killarney. Only foxes, badgers and 

 hares are still with us. If the term " lepusculus " refers 

 to the rabbit it would indicate that this animal is probably 

 indigenous. I cannot imagine why the author should 

 have used this word if he meant " hare/' as the ordinary 

 Latin word is " lepus " not " lepusculus " which stands for 

 leveret or little hare. What Augustine wished to convey 

 by the word " sesquivolos " is not clear to me. " More than 

 half-fiying " animals might be the correct rendering of this 

 word, which I cannot find in any dictionary. As I was 

 writing this review of Augustine's essays Prof. Henry 

 pointed out to me that the late Bishop Reeves had published 

 an account of this eminent Irish monk.^ On consulting 

 this paper I find that the Bishop had alluded to the sentence 

 just referred to and had translated " lepusculus " by hare 

 and " sesquivolos " by rabbits or weasels. In a footnote 

 Bishop Reeves acknowledges that the last word occurs 

 nowhere else, and while translating it as above he submits 

 the suggestion that it might have been squirolus " 

 denoting a squirrel. Indeed it is quite possible that the 

 original word in Augustine's manuscript was wrongly 

 transcribed. In any case I scarcely think we are justified 

 in translating the word by either rabbit or weasel. Bishop 

 Reeves treated Augustine's essays from a standpoint rather 

 different from my own. He was more concerned with the 

 writer's originality of thought and intimate acquaintance 

 with sacred literature and expressed the opinion that from 

 a theological point of view Augustine's essay is the most 

 interesting relique of Irish learning. 



A Swedish author, Mr. Nils von Hofsten,^ refers to the 

 writings of the Irish Augustinus, as he calls him, in the 

 most glowing terms and speaks of him as having been the 

 first to explain the discontinuous distribution of animals 

 by the assumption of a former land connection between 

 territories that are at present separated. 



1 Reeves, Rev. William : " On Augustin, an Irish wTiter of the 

 seventh century." — Proc. Royal Irish Academy, vol. vii, 1861. 



iNils von Hofsten : " Zur alteren Geschichte des Diskontinuitats- 

 problems in der Biogeographie. " — Zoologische Annalen, vol. vii., 1916, 



