208 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



the presence of " very large Red Deer " about the " remote parts 

 of that great mountain " (Merrick). I bought at a book sale 

 one day a work in two vols., entitled "The Natural History of 

 Quadrupeds and Cetaceous Animals," published at Bungay in 

 1811. The work is profusely illustrated with coloured plates, 

 but is a mere compilation, and its only value is in its extreme 

 scarcity. I find an allusion therein (vol. ii. p. 209) to the 

 Galloway Deer, which is of interest : " So late as in the beginning 

 of the last century there were red deer scattered over the hills 

 of Galloway. But by the eagerness with which the peasants 

 pursued them, they have been long since exterminated from 

 that district." A remnant must have been left, for " Deer were 

 occasionally seen in the remembrance of some old people " 

 ("New Statistical Account," Kells parish, February 1844). 



FALLOW DEER, Cervus dama. Only kept in a semi-domesticated 

 state in a few of the parks. The " New Statistical Account " 

 records in the notes to the parish of Johnstone that in 1780 

 James, Earl of Hopetoun, brought a dozen of Fallow Deer to Rae- 

 hills, where they were placed in an enclosure, but subsequently 

 broke out, and were never confined again. They gave rise to 

 a numerous herd that roamed at large in Upper Annandale, and 

 in 1844 it was computed that they numbered upwards of 200. 

 Orders to destroy them were issued, and although more than 

 fifty were killed within a week, their utter destruction was not 

 accomplished before the orders were recalled. It is believed 

 that possibly a few descendants of this herd are still at large, 

 but as these may be confused with individuals recently escaped 

 from the parks, there can be no certainty. 



ROE DEER, Capreolus caprea. The return of the Roe to Annandale 

 was put down by Sir Wm. Jardine as shortly after 1854, but 

 there is some reason to believe that it was a few years earlier, 

 for the writer of the account of the parish of Johnstone in the 

 " New Statistical Account " states that " within these last three 

 years a few Roe Deer have been discovered." An introduction 

 on the Drumlanrig estates about 1860 helped to stock Niths- 

 dale, and within a few years thereafter the Roe was quite 

 common. By 1870 the Roe had spread widely over Galloway, 

 and is now everywhere numerous in suitable haunts. 



COMMON RORQUAL, Baltznoptera musculus. A Whale stranded on 

 the Priestside Bank on 2oth September 1817 has been described 

 as this species. Another occurred in the channel opposite Tor- 

 duff Point on 2ist June 1843. For several weeks at this 

 period a couple of large Whales, computed to have been over 

 sixty feet in length, and noted in the local papers of the time 

 as Rorquals, frequented the Solway betwixt the Robin Rigg 

 and the Sea Scaur Lighthouse. They were supposed to !>e 



