The accompanying illustration represents a lower jaw of this ancient Irish pig, procured from the crannog of Lough Gur, county Limerick; it is of a yellowish-brown colour, a hue that pervades all the animal remains from that locality.
Fig. 39.—Head and Antlers of Cervus elephas.
Fig. 40. Fig. 41. Fig. 42.
Crania of Goats.
Bones of the red deer (Cervus elephas) are extremely plentiful in lacustrine sites. It is the wild animal most frequently mentioned in early Irish history, and of which there were many until a comparatively modern epoch: so late as 1752 they abounded in the barony of Erris, county Mayo, and some few exist still in Killarney. The head and antlers here shown came from the crannog of Ballinderry, county Westmeath. The horns in this specimen are still attached to the cranium, and there were originally seven tines on the right, and eight on the left side. Bones of the Magaceros Hibernicus, or Irish big-horn, of the wolf and fox, of a small breed of horse, and of the ass, have been also met with. The remains of sheep belong to the horned class. There are several specimens of the four-horned variety of the goat ([fig. 42]), but those of the ordinary kind are more numerous: figs. [40] and [41] are from Dunshaughlin. Amongst the vast collection of animal remains on the site of this crannog were heads of canine animals: of the largest of these the accompanying cut gives a faithful representation. “It is nearly eleven inches in length, measured from the end of the occipital ridge to the alveolar process at the roots of the upper incisors, and is principally characterized by the magnitude of the crest.”[104] The profile view of the outline, and the prolonged muzzle, rather lead to the belief of its having belonged to the true Irish wolf-dog of former times, a large long-coated hound, of an iron-grey colour.