212 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



of twelve months, it is not surprising that the older naturalists 

 thought that we must have more than one species in this 

 country I only marvel that they did not think we had 

 three or four ! 



Roe Deer in Bute. If this species does not exist at the 

 present day in the island of Bute, as is stated in the May issue 

 of the Scottish Naturalist (p. 98), its disappearance is of recent 

 date. I have the following records of its occurrence : 



1914 Culivine plantation fencing necessary against rabbits 

 and roes. Trans. Roy. Scot. Arboricultural Society, vol. 

 28, January 1914, p. 114. 



1 90 1 Mr John Robertson, writing me on 14th June, reports 

 having seen it. 



1866 John Colquhoun, in his Sporting Days (1866), speaks 

 of roes as far more numerous in South Bute than in 

 the northern division of the island, and that he killed 

 a pair "last winter," and saw a pair "this year.'"' 



Hugh Bovd Watt. 



[The statement referred to by Mr Watt is misleading. It should 

 read " not one of the native races exists at the present day on the 

 island " ; the intention having been to indicate that of the large 

 mammals which existed on Bute in early historic and prehistoric 

 days, all had disappeared from the island fauna. The Roe Deer, 

 like the other creatures mentioned, became extinct in Bute, judging 

 from the statements of Pennant, Walker, and others as to the very 

 restricted range of the species in Scotland in the eighteenth century. 

 The Roe Deer now in Bute bear no close relationship to those of 

 the early island fauna, but are recent immigrants to the island, 

 which owe their presence to the deliberate introduction of man, or 

 have been induced by his new plantations to venture across the 

 Kyles. J. R.] 



