NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 143 



many localities. Mr. Jas. Graham, gardener, near Moffat, when 

 reporting in my behalf to Mr. Robert Service, regarding the dates 

 of first appearance of the Squirrel in Dumfriesshire, adds : — " They 

 have never been abundant here, and I have only seen one this 

 summer. I think the past winter has had a severe effect upon 

 them." 



A perceptible increase in the numbers of Squirrels upon 

 Oastlemilk estate, Dumfriesshire, took place every year after their 

 first appearance there, until 1878, when their numbers might be 

 about four times that of 1854 [when they were comparatively 

 scarce]. Mr. Johnstone, forester at Castlemilk, reporting to Mr. 

 Service, adds — "Their numbers this year — 1879 — are much less, 

 which I attribute to the long and severe winter." Similar reports 

 reach me from other parts of Scotland, and a general decrease is 

 noted by many observers — amongst whom I may mention Mr. 

 Duncan Detvar, at Remony, Loch Tay. Mr. Service says : — 

 " Squirrels were all but totally exterminated, and since last 

 December he had only seen one." [Op. cit., Nov. 8th, 1879, p. 4.] 



Later in 1879, however, it is reported to me that, around Perth, 

 and in the woods of the lower Tay valley, Squirrels were never 

 more abundant than they were in December. This distinctly 

 indicates extensive migrations, and I have similar reports from the 

 Vale of Menteith and elsewhere — viz., fluctuations in the popula- 

 tion of Squirrels, evidently caused by local, or it may be even 

 more extensive, migrations. It is perhaps needless to point out 

 the almost self-evident fact, that unless suitable avenues of escape, 

 and sufficiently continuous shelter is afforded for such migrations, 

 the species must decrease in numbers. 



Now, all this is interesting in the particular case of the Squirrel, 

 as tending to strengthen the opinion of several of my correspon- 

 dents, that the extinction or almost total extinction of the species 

 in Scotland was in some measure hastened by "a succession of 

 severe winters." The following passage — extracted from the MS. of 

 an essay " On the Squirrel in Scotland," at which I am at present 

 working — is appropriate in this connection : — 



" After passing through a winter of unusual severity — 1878-79 

 — our thoughts are, not unnaturally, turned to consider some of 

 the severe winters which have occurred before. It is not long- 

 since a writer in one of our Scotch papers gave a resume of these, 

 and it is not without significance that two of the most terrible 



