THE 



EDINBURGH JOURNAL 



OF 



NATURAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 



JUNE 1830. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



ART. I. Account of the Series of Islands usually denominated 

 the Outer Hebrides. By William Macgillivray, A.M. &c. 

 —{Continued from Vol. II. p. 95.) 



Sect. VI. — Wild Animals. Mammifera. 



From the preceding sections some idea may be formed of the 

 general nature of these islands, from which their capabability of 

 supporting animal existence may in some measure be inferred. The 

 lana mammifera are of course the same as those which occur in 

 other parts of Scotland, although the catalogue of them is brief, on 

 account of the exposed nature of the country, the absence of woods, 

 and the scantiness of the vegetation in the parts comparatively free 

 from the intrusion of man. 



The species which reside entirely on land are the following : 

 1. The Red Deer. Cervus Elaphus, Linn. This animal was 

 formerly very abundant in the large islands, but at the present day 

 is almost exclusively confined to Lewis and the northern part of 

 Harris. A few individuals still occur on the moors of the two 

 Uists ; but on the moors and mountains of Lewis, and the Forest 

 of Harris, considerable numbers of this fine animal are still to be 

 met with. The red deer has been called a " noble animal," not by 

 poets and poetical writers only, but by naturalists, who have indeei 

 been too often poetically disposed. It is certainly a large and 

 graceful aniinal ; but as persons of the classes mentioned, generally 

 employ the epithet noble to denote courage and power, they ought 

 to choose another for an animal which is timid in the highest de- 

 gree. It is extremely vigilant, feeds chiefly in the evening and 

 morning, and rests during the greater part of the day, generally in 



