Thi Scottish Naturalist. 49 



Tristoma. The chief remarks I have to make refer, however, to the continuance 

 of the heart's action, even after it was removed from the body. The fish was to 

 all appearance dead, on the evening it was caught (Thursday) ; next morning it 

 was opened, when the auricle was found to be still beating strongly and regularly, 

 four times per minute. It seemed to contain only air, and a very little fluid. 

 The contraction seemed to begin behind, and to be continued forwards towards 

 the ventricle, and it was followed by a recoil, seemingly due to the elasticity of the 

 muscular fibres of the auricle bringing it into its former position. The regularity 

 of the movement did not seem to be affected by pricking with any sharp instru- 

 ment. The ventricle was not seen to move from the time the fish was opened. 

 On cutting out the gill arteries from among the flesh, the heart began to beat 

 faster, and at last reached seven beats per minute, but after the heart and vessels 

 were cut completely out, the motion became slower again — four to six beats per 

 minute. It continued to beat till Monday evening, but became more and more 

 feeble, though still very regular, and the intervals between the beats shorter, 

 but by nine a.m. on Tuesday it had stopped. It had thus continued to beat 

 nearly four days after it was cut out of the body of the fish, viz., — from Friday 

 forenoon till Monday evening. The only precautions taken were to cover it 

 with a glass shade to keep it moist and to keep off dust. — J. Traill, Univer- 

 sity, Old Aberdeen, Feb. 17. 



Squirrels in the North of Scotland.— In connection with Dr. Gordon's 

 note on Squirrels in Moray (p. 19), we give the following cutting from the 

 Elgin Con rant : — 



"Squirrels, we believe, first appeared north of Spey some twenty years ago. 

 Writers of natural histories, not so long ago as that, tell us that squirrels were 

 unknown in "the north, and they certainly were very few. Half a century has, 

 however, elapsed since there were squirrels in Roxburghshire, into which a 

 nobleman is said to have introduced them. In that country, as also in Perth- 

 shire, they are now a great pest, and hunted down without mercy. The 

 squirrel is a creature known to have a propensity to migrate, persistently pur- 

 suing its course over river, mountain, and moor. They came here from Perth- 

 shire, by the way of Glentruitn, getting to the top of that glen we know not 

 how, through the wilderness on both sides of Dalwhinnie. At all events that 

 was the route of the squirrel invasion, for they made their first appearance among 

 the trees about Invereshie and Aviemore, and the woods of Rothiemurchus. 

 From Badenoch, or rather Strathspey, they crossed into Nairn or Morayshire, 

 and their multiplication has been so rapid, that now scarcely a wood in the two 

 counties is free from their ravages. In the woods of Cawdor, Darnaway, and 

 Altyre, they were numerous fifteen years ago, but it is not jnore than five years 

 since they came to the woods on Heldon Hill, and the Oak Wood, near Elgin. 

 From Elgin they have gone to the woods about Gordon Castle, and the exten- 

 sive plantations about Cullen House will soon receive a visit from them." 



Madness in Animals.— We have frequently been asked, Hozv and what to 

 observe and record, so that persons of ordinary capacity and opportunity— aspi- 

 ring to become naturalists, or simply desirous of aiding in the development of 

 local Natural History— may contribute their quota to the real progress of scien- 

 tific knowledge. Let us indicate one of the directions in which all who have an 

 opportunity of observing the habits of the domestic animals — [and indeed all who 

 are in the practice of reading newspapers and serials, and have the taste and 



