14 
MURIDvE. 
The Arvicola neglecta is believed by M. de Selys-Longchamps to be the Mus 
agrestis of Linnaeus, a species found in Sweden. 
The Squirrel, Sciurus vulgaris, Linn. 
Rutty remarks that the squirrel is “ said to have been found in Lut- 
terel’s Town;” and there is a tradition that this animal was common in 
Ireland before the destruction of the native woods. 
In O’Flaherty’ s West or H’lar Connaught (1684), the squirrel is 
amongst the animals enumerated as then inhabiting that district. 
The following extract from a letter, dated Edgeworthstown, 16th July, 
1848, received by my friend Robert Patterson, Esq., from the venerable 
Maria Edgeworth (then, as she signed herself, in her 82nd year), is con- 
clusive as to the recent existence of this species in some parts of Ireland : — 
“ I can assure you that squirrels are to be found in Ireland, to my certain 
knowledge, and in my neighbourhood; at Castle Forbes, the seat of the Earl of 
Granard ; and at Carrickglass, the seat of Baron Lefroy As we were 
driving through the woods, at Carrickglass, yesterday, a lady in the carriage 
looked up and saw something darting up the stem of a tree. It was a squirrel, 
new to her, as she was from Cork. In your next edition [Mr. Patterson’s 
“ Zoology for Schools ” is the work here alluded to] I request you will enlarge 
your assertion respecting squirrels in Ireland, and not confine their existence to 
the County of Wicklow. They not only are to be found, but abound, in many 
places in Ireland, too numerous here to mention.” 
The gamekeeper at Donard Lodge, having formerly lived at Castle 
Forbes (County Longford), I inquired from him, in August, 1851, whe- 
ther he had seen squirrels in the latter demesne ; to which he replied, 
that when he was resident there, in 1836 and 1837, they were abundant, 
and that they were also numerous in the adjoining demesne of Carrick- 
glass, but he had not known of their existence elsewhere. They were 
well known to have been introduced at Castle Forbes, but at what period 
he could not state. He added, that the late Lord Forbes, imagining that 
these animals did injury to the young shoots of the trees, offered to give 
him one shilling a-head for them, and that numbers were killed. On one 
occasion he shot twenty-five within the space of an hour. After being 
fired at, they became very wary. 
A gentleman who resided for many years near Newtonmountkennedy 
(County Wicklow) informed me, in 1851, that they were plentiful in that 
locality. 
Tunbridge Wells, October 4, 1847. — Squirrels. — My friend Mr. 
W. Ogilby and I saw several to-day in this neighbourhood, and all on 
beech trees, eating the mast ; oaks, covered with acorns, adjoined the beech 
trees, but no squirrels were on them. Mr. O. remarked to me that he ob- 
served, when here last year, that they were never on oak trees, but that 
he saw them frequently extracting seed from the cones of the spruce fir. 
Common Dormouse, Myoxus avellanarius, Desmar. 
The dormouse is not indigenous to Ireland. Rutty observes that “ a 
vulgar error has prevailed, mentioned in Johnston’s Historia Animalmm, 
that the dormouse was not found in Ireland.” A sort of description fol- 
lows, but by no means proving the animal to be the dormouse. 
Harvest Mouse, Mus minutus, Pallas. — {M. messorius, Shaw.) 
This species cannot be given with certainty as a native of Ireland. The 
only information received by me from any part of the country which 
