third place, the greater strength and thickness of the skull would almost to a certainty render the blow unavailing; and in the fourth place, supposing the females domesticated, and the occasional tenants of sheds and other buildings, we may well imagine that the males were excluded from such buildings by the enormous size of their antlers. Perhaps a few only of the males, as in our cattle, were suffered to become adult, one male sufficing for many females. Perhaps the males were allowed free range, the females only being permitted at stated seasons to accompany them. In fine, the more we investigate probabilities, the more we reason from present experience and knowledge, the less difficulty shall we find in the way of believing the gigantic deer of Ireland an animal coeval with man and subservient to his uses."[27]
In a communication subsequently made to the Zoologist by Mr. Richardson, he gives the following additional evidence:—"In the collection of the late Mr. Johnston, of Down, which had been left by his uncle, an attorney, and in which everything was labelled with the accuracy and precision of that profession, is a small brass spear, with a piece of wood still in the socket, with a label, stating it to have been found in a marl-pit, among the bones of a deer. An excise-officer told me that he saw, found in a marl-pit, at Mentrim in Meath, the skeleton of a deer, and a man, and a long knife: the latter, I believe, is rather a short sword, now, I think, in the collection of Mr. Petrie, of Dublin, who told me that some such tradition had accompanied it into his possession. … Dr. Martin informs me that on the banks of the river Suir, near Portland, Waterford, and on nearly every farm, are found, near springs, spaces of frequently seventy feet in diameter, consisting of stones, broken up as if for roads, and lying together in a mass. These stones were evidently purposely broken, and all much of one size, and are charred. These spaces are many feet in depth. The tradition respecting them is current among the peasantry, that here in olden time, a great deer was killed and baked in these stone-pits, the stones having been previously heated like a kiln, and they also distinguish the animal as the 'Irish Elk.' These places are called in Irish by a name signifying the 'Buck's Den.'"
From all these testimonies combined, can we hesitate a moment in believing that the Giant Deer was an inhabitant of Ireland since its colonisation by man? It seems to me that its extinction cannot have taken place more than a thousand years ago. Perhaps at the very time that Cæsar invaded Britain the Celts in the sister isle were milking and slaughtering their female elks, domesticated in their cattlepens of granite, and hunting the proud-antlered male with their flint arrows and lances. It would appear, that the mode of hunting him was to chase and terrify him into pools and swamps, such as the marl-pits then were; that, having thus disabled him in the yielding bogs, and slain him, the head was cut off, as of too little value to be worth the trouble of dragging home; that the under jaws and tongue were cut off; and that frequently the entire carcase was disjointed on the spot, the best parts only being removed. This would account for the so frequent occurrence of separate portions of the skeleton, and especially of skulls, in the bog-earth. No doubt so large an animal would not long survive in a state of freedom, after an island so limited in extent as Ireland became peopled throughout; and supposing the females to have been domesticated, it is quite conceivable that the difficulty or even danger of capturing or domesticating the males, may have caused the species soon to become extinct in captivity, when it no longer continued to exist in a wild state. Thus we may perhaps account for the certainly remarkable fact that no native Irish name has been recognised as belonging to it;—remarkable, because the Irish tongue is particularly rich in distinctive names for natural objects. There exists a very curious ancient poem in that language which professes to enumerate the whole fauna of the island. It is founded on the legend that Fian MacCumhaill was made prisoner by Cormac MacArt, king of Erinn; that the victor promised to give him freedom on condition that, as a ransom, a pair of each wild animal found in Ireland were brought before him on the green of Tara. Cailte MacRonain, the foster-brother of the captive general undertook the task, and succeeded in bringing the collection before the king within a twelvemonth; and in the poem, he is supposed to narrate to St. Patrick the detail and result of his enterprise. Of this poem, which is considered to be as early as the ninth century, the reader may like to see the following translation by Mr. Eugene Curry, containing the zoological portion:—
"I then went forth to search the lands,
To see if I could redeem my chief,
And soon returned to noble Tara,
With the ransom that Cormac required.
"I brought with me the fierce Geilt,[28] And the tall Grib[29] with talons, And the two Ravens of Fid-dá-Beann, And the two Ducks of Loch Saileann.
"Two Foxes from Sliabh Cuilinn,
Two Wild Oxen[30] from Burren, Two Swans from the dark wood of Gabhran, And two Cuckoos from the wood of Fordrum.
"Two Toghmalls[31] from Fidh-Gaibhle, Which is by the side of the two roads, And two Otters after them, From the brown-white rock of Dobhar.
"Two Gulls from Tralee hither,
Two Ruilechs[32] from Port Lairge (Waterford), Four Snags[33] from the River Brosna, Two Plovers from the rock of Dunán.
"Two Echtachs[34] from the lofty Echtghe, Two Thrushes from Letter Longarie, Two Drenns[35] from Dun Aife, The two Cainches[36] of Corraivte.
"Two Herons from the hilly Corann,
The two Errfiachs[37] of Magh Fobhair, The two Eagles of Carrick-na-Cloch, Two Hawks from the wood of Caenach.
"Two Pheasants from Loch Meilge,
Two Water-hens from Loch Eirne,
Two Heath-hens from the Bog of Mafa,
Two Swift Divers from Dubh Loch.
"Two Cricharans[38] from Cualann, Two Titmice from Magh Tualang, Two Choughs from Gleann Gaibhle, Two Sparrows from the Shannon.
"Two Cormorants from Ath Cliath,
Two Onchus[39] from Crotta Cliach, Two Jackdaws from Druim Damh, Two Riabhogs[40] from Leathan Mhaigh.
"Two Rabbits from Dumho Duinn,
Two wild Hogs from circular Cnoghbha,
Two Peatáns[41] from Creat Roe, Two wild Boars[42] from green-sided Tara.
"Two Pigeons out of Ceis Corann,
Two Blackbirds out of Leitir Finnchoill,
Two black Birds (?) from the strand of Dabhan,
Two Roebucks from Luachair Deaghaidh.
"Two Fereidhins[43] from Ath Loich, Two Fawns from Moin mor, Two Bats out of the Cave of Cnoghbha, Two Pigs[44] from the lands of Ollarbha.
"Two Swallows out of Sidh Buidhe,
Two Iaronns[45] from the wood of Luadraidh, Two Geisechtachs[46] from Magh Mall, Two charming Robins from Cnamh Choill.
"Two Woodcocks from Coillruadh,
Two Crows from Lenn Uar,
Two Bruacharans[47] from Sliabh-da-Ean, Two Barnacle-Geese from Turloch Bruigheoil.
"Two Naescans[48] from Dun Daighre, Two Yellow-ammers from
