204 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



POLECAT, Mustela putorius. Now practically extinct throughout the 

 area of Sohvay. The last one I have any notes of was an 

 individual trapped in Glenlee in 1891. Formerly it was a 

 common and familiar animal. 



ERMINE, Mustela erminea. Not so abundant as in former days, but 

 still sufficiently common. 



WEASEL, Mustela vulgaris. The same remark applies to this 

 species. 



BADGER, Meles taxus. Probably the last of the native breed was 

 exterminated before the end of the '6o's. Introductions since 

 then have been frequent. The Badgers killed in Kells in 

 1883, in Southwick in 1877, near Dalbeattie in 1870, and at 

 Dalswinton in 1887, may all have been stragglers from places 

 where they had been turned down. It is just possible that 

 some of the original race may yet linger near the head of one 

 of the Annandale glens, where I have reliable information that 

 some years since a female with two young were seen. 



OTTER, Lutra vulgaris. Still comparatively abundant, and of general 

 distribution from the head-waters of the smallest streams and 

 the hill lochs down to the sea-shore. There is much reason to 

 believe that it has actually increased in numbers of late years. 



COMMON SEAL, Phoca vitulina. Of frequent occurrence all round 

 the coast, but generally in the late autumn months. It is 

 supposed that a herd always descends towards the Ayrshire 

 and Galloway coast from Argyleshire at that season. There 

 are no records of any Seals having bred on our coasts, though 

 that they sometimes do so is shown in the fact that a young 

 one weighing about 28 Ibs. was captured on the Blackshaw 

 Bank in Dumfriesshire in August 1894. 



SQUIRREL, Sciurus vulgaris. Mr. Harvie-Brown has already treated 

 the history of the Squirrel in its recent movements in Solway 

 ("Squirrel in Great Britain," "Proceedings of Royal Physical 

 Society ") and so exhaustively that anything now to be said is 

 mere repetition. Their re-appearance in Dumfriesshire (Upper 

 Eskdale) dates from 1837, or perhaps a year or two earlier, but 

 it would be fully ten years later before they became quite 

 common and began to spread westwards. They crossed the 

 Nith about 1860, and soon became generally dispersed, reaching 

 the Cree about 1873. That river appears to have been an 

 obstacle not easily negotiated, as some seven or eight years 

 elapsed before the Squirrels got across. Early in the '8o's, 

 however, they became general in Wigtown, and at the present 

 day abound in many localities in that county. 



