Volume 1

Tracts relating to Ireland.

Date:
1841-1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Tracts relating to Ireland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Page 14, line 8. There is neither mol, pye, nor carren crow.—The mole (Talpa Europaea) has never been naturalized in Ireland ; and as to the magpie (Pica caudata) our author is probably correct, for Derricke, who wrote in 1581, in his “ Image of Ireland,” says, “ pies to plucke the thatch from house, are breed in Irishe grounde : But worse then pies the same to hurne a thousande maie be Ibunde.” Somer's Tracts, 2nd Edit. 4to. vol. i. p. 582. “ Ireland,” says Moryson, in 1617, “ hath neither singing nightingall, nor chat- tering pye, nor undermining moule.”—Itinerary, Part iii. B. 3, p. 160. And Smith, who published the second edition of his “ History of Cork,” in 1774, says, “the magpie, or pianet, was not known in Ireland seventy years ago, but are now very common.”—Vol. ii. p. 330. The earliest notice of this bird as indigenous in Ireland is in “ Keogh’s Zoologia Medicinalis Hibernica, Dublin, 8vo. 1739;” he merely mentions the “ magpie, or pianet, Hih. Maggidipye. This evidently Anglo-Irish word, for we have no name for it in the ancient Irish language, favours the opinion held by our best inforrped naturalists, that this bird is of recent introduction into this country. Of the Carren, or carrion crow, (corvus corone,) we have not any authority as to the date of its introduction into Ireland. Moryson says, we have not the “ blacke crow, but onely crowes of mingled colour, such as wee call Boyston crowes;” Part iii. B. 3, p. 160 ; and Smith tells us that “ the common, or carrion crow, so called from its food, is very common in England, but more rare with us;” vol. ii. p. 329; and, according to Mr. Thompson of Belfast, “ it frequents the coast chiefly through the northern parts.” The Irish word for a crow is piormoj, which signifies the scare or scald crow, or royston crow, (corvus cornix,) which, according to Smith, is “ a very common and mischievous bird” in Ireland. 6aDb also signifies the royston crow, or any ravenous bird. ' Page 14, line 9. There is neither sheepe dieth on the rot, nor beast on the murrame—The Editor is unableto say, how long the “ rot,” as a disease of sheep, is known in Ireland, but it is certain that it was known before our Author’s time, for we have the word leiche, which signifies the “ rot in sheep,” occurring in manuscripts of a very early date; and the ' “murraine”