MAMMALIA OF SOLWAY 207 



wards through the Annandale ranges on to Eskdale. It was 

 some ten years later before it made its appearance westwards 

 on the Stewartry ranges. It now abounds everywhere on all 

 the hills. 



RABBIT, Lepus cuniculits. When Dr. Singer wrote his "Agricultural 

 Survey of Dumfriesshire" in 1812, he remarked (p. 384) that 

 " a few rabbits are to be found, but hardly worth mentioning. 

 There is no regular warren." At the same period they were 

 practically unknown in Galloway, and the rabbit-skins that were 

 annually exposed at the Dumfries Candlemas market for furs 

 (" Scottish Naturalist," July 1891) during the first twenty years 

 or so of this century were of Ayrshire origin. Some time subse- 

 quent to 1825 the fox-hunting interest introduced rabbits largely 

 throughout both Dumfriesshire and the Stewartry, and ever since 

 that time they have been plentiful enough. At the present day 

 the wild breed has been much crossed in some parts by the 

 turning down of tame breeds such as the Belgian and Silver 

 Gray. 



WILD WHITE CATTLE, Bos Scoticus. Two herds formerly existed, 

 one of them being the Drumlanrig herd, which may be said to 

 have been indigenous and original stock. They were either 

 killed or sold for there are different versions of the story 

 by William, Duke of Queensberry, somewhere about 1777. 

 There was also a small herd, the originals of which were pro- 

 cured from Cadzow, kept at Cally Park by Alexander Murray 

 of Broughton, and sold in 1846. For a more extended account 

 of the Solway Wild White Cattle, see " Zoologist " for December 

 1887. 



RED DEER, Cervus elaphus. "The range of the Red Deer, formerly 

 extending over all our province (Solway) and much farther south, 

 is now far to the northward." So said Sir Wm. Jardine in a 

 lecture delivered in 1860 to the Dumfriesshire and Galloway 

 Natural History Society. According to the writer of the " Sta- 

 tistical Account " of Moffat parish, " the last hart was killed there 

 in 1754, having been long single." The range betwixt Dumfries- 

 shire and Lanarkshire was, as may easily be supposed, a famous 

 place for deer. In the ballad of " John of Breadislee " we find 

 that the redoubtable borderer 



. . . has gone to Durisdeer 

 To hunt the dun deer down. 



A stag was killed at Eaglesfield in Dumfriesshire on 25th 

 October 1815, a Mr. Clark of Broughton having been killed by 

 it. It had been hunted from Dalemain near Penrith, through 

 Carlisle and Cockermouth, and far across the border country. 

 In Symson's "Galloway" (1684) there are some references to 



