

(Authors are responsible for nomenclature used.) ]. * 



LI BR AF 



The Scottish Naturalis 1 



No. 17.] 1913 [May 



LEMMING REMAINS IN SOUTH-EAST 

 SCOTLAND. 



By William Evans, F.R.S.E. 



That Lemmings of more than one species inhabited Britain 

 in Pleistocene times is now well known. There is, so far as I 

 know, no published record, however, of Lemming remains 

 from Scotland, with the exception of the brief statement in 

 the footnote on page 401 of my second paper on the 

 " Mammals of the Edinburgh (Forth) District," which appeared 

 in the Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society for 1906 

 (vol. xvi., part 8). 



In the footnote referred to I mentioned that the late 

 James Bennie (of the Geological Survey of Scotland) had 

 told me, in a letter dated 17th April 1892, 1 that in the Arctic 

 plant-bed of the "ancient lake" at Corstorphine (immedi- 

 ately to the west of Edinburgh) he had found a jawbone, with 

 the teeth in it, which Mr E. T. Newton had said was that 

 of a Lemming. Bennie died in January 1901. Though 

 he published an account of this old lake deposit, and the 

 plant-remains found in it {Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist., 1894), he 

 does not appear to have anywhere recorded the Lemming 

 remains. It is, therefore, fortunate that his letter to me has 

 been preserved. Before inserting the note in my 1906 paper, 

 I tried to trace the specimen, but without success. A request 

 by Major Barrett- Hamilton for fuller information about 

 Bennie's discovery to incorporate in the forthcoming part of 

 his work on British Mammals has caused me to take the 



1 In the footnote the year is wrongly given as 1894. 

 17 N 



