As it is in Ireland and Scotland that the most characteristic of the halberd blades have been discovered, it will be well to commence with the examples from those countries rather than with those from England. In Fig. 331 is represented a fine specimen of a form not unusual in Ireland, though the central rib is somewhat more ornamented than is generally the case. The rivets, as usual, are three in number, and are still preserved in the blade. In this case they are about ⅜ inch in diameter and ¾ inch between the heads, which are about ⅝ inch in diameter and have been carefully hammered into an almost hemispherical form. The midrib ends abruptly in a straight line where it abutted on the shaft. The metal appears to have a considerably less proportion of tin to copper than is usual with bronze weapons. It looks in fact almost like pure copper. [Illustration: Fig. 331.—Ireland. ½] This coppery appearance is by no means uncommon in these blades. I have another specimen of the same form (9¾ inches), but without the bead on the midrib. It was found at Letterkenny, Co. Donegal. A specimen much like Fig. 331 is termed by Vallancey,[978] “the brass head of a _Tuagh catha_, a general name for the war-axe.” “The large rivets of this weapon show it was mounted on a very strong shaft.” Sir W. Wilde has described, under the two distinct headings of “Broad scythe-shaped Swords,” and “Battle-axes,” the weapons which I have here classed together. Of the former he mentions forty-one specimens in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy, of the latter but two or three. The “swords”[979] he describes as thick, heavy, and round-pointed, averaging about 12 inches in length by about 2½ inches in breadth at the base; twenty-two of the blades being curved. With the strong blades, however, he classes some which are quite thin and flat, and which have more the appearance of having been intended for daggers. The curved shape is much against their having been attached to staves “spear-ways;” so that Wilde’s other suggestion of the scythe-shaped swords having been mounted like axes, or “affixed to long handles like modern halberds,” seems much more reasonable. As to the shorter and broader blades, whether curved or not, he appears to have had no doubt of their being a kind of battle-axes.