ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 191 



ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. 



The Hedgehog in Sutherland. In " A Vertebrate Fauna of 

 the Moray Basin ; ' (vol. i. p. 155), I find stated: "The Hedgehog 

 is not yet found in a wild state in Sutherland, although it has been 

 introduced on several occasions." This year I found two Hedgehogs 

 (Erinaceus europceits} : one on the 2ist July amongst long heather, 

 and the other in thick brackens on the 3rd August. They were 

 found about two miles up the Lettie, which is a tributary of the 

 Fleet, and their haunts were only about 800 yards apart ; and but for 

 the movements of the dogs I should not have discovered them. As 

 early as the beginning of autumn 1872 I found a Hedgehog about 

 200 yards from Tressady Lodge, but at the time did not con- 

 sider it worthy of special notice. WILLIAM MACKENZIE, Rogart, 

 Sutherland. 



Badger (Melcs taxus, Schreb.) in Stirlingshire. Mr. John 

 Moir of Dunipace, Larbert, reports that a specimen of this mammal 

 was found dead at the mouth of the conduit that enters from a 

 d tch near Roughmute, Dunipace, during the last week of April. 

 The body was taken to Mr. George Paterson of Thornton, who has 

 had it stuffed, and who reports that it was three or four years old 

 and that it measures 31 inches from tip to tip. Mr. Paterson also 

 states that there was formerly an old " saugh " tree that stood 

 exactly on the Thornton and Dunipace march, and at the foot of that 

 tree there was a hole, known as the badger's hole, and that led into 

 the same drain or ditch where this one was found. 



Long-eared and Pipistrelle Bats in Islay. The presence of 

 bats of different kinds in Islay has always been well known to the 

 natives, though Mr. Harvie-Brown does not seem to have been able 

 to obtain actual specimens from the island. In the spring of 1892 

 I saw one flying about, but could not identify the species. In 

 August 1894 one was brought in alive, by a cat, to the kitchen of 

 Mr. Colin Scott, Port Ellen. It proved to be the Pipistrelle 

 ( Vesperugo pipistrellus). Last November another also a Pipistrelle 

 was sent me by Mr. M 'Donald, lighthouse-keeper at Rhu Mhaoil, 

 in the Sound of Islay, where it was caught alive. And only a week 

 ago a third, a beautiful example of the Long-eared Bat (Plecotus 

 auritus), was got in Port Ellen during the demolition of some old 

 buildings. As the Gaelic names for these two species are different, 

 the Long-eared Bat being called by a name signifying horned, we 

 have a proof that both kinds have been sufficiently long recognised 

 to have acquired distinctive names in Islay. T. F. GILMOUR, Port 

 Ellen. 



