LAND MAMMALS OP THE CLYDE FAUNAL AREA. 181 



John Colquhoun recollected, as a child, " the rueful face of a 

 farm-man who informed my father of the first rat that had ever 

 been known " at Eossdhu, Luss. On Ailsa Craig the Brown Rat 

 obtained a footing in 1889, and, probably owing to abundant 

 food, had increased so enormously that, in 1890, 1,000 are said 

 to have been killed. In 1900 its numbers were still such that 

 it could clear off the bodies of the innumerable dead birds 

 which accmiiulate at the base of the clififs. It flourishes on a 

 shore diet, and is found on the smaller islands, such as Sanda, 

 Sheep Island and Glunimore (Kintyre), Sgat Mhor (Loch Fyne), 

 and Inch Moan (Loch Lomond). 



28. MiCROTDS AGRESTis (Z.) — Common Field- Vole. A common 

 species throughout the area. Its depredations are not confined 

 to gi'ass lands, for it has been known to damage gi'owing trees. 

 At Cameron (Dumbartonshire) in 1825 the oak coppices were 

 attacked, and at Nether Pollok in 1898 Mr. John Boyd, forester, 

 was struck by the sickly appearance of a small plantation, and, 

 on examination, found that the trees were barked all round to 

 the height of about one foot from the ground, both hard-woods 

 and conifers being attacked. The great vole plague of 1888- 

 1893, which infested the pasture lands of the South of Scotland, 

 had its northern limits in the " Clyde " parishes of Crawford 

 and DalmelUngton (Report on the Plague oj Field- Voles in 

 Scotland, 1893). 



29. M. GLAREOLUS (Schreber.) — Bank Vole. This is a little 

 known species, but such may be due to its being overlooked 

 by obsei-vers or to a want of specific detemiination. As my 

 information stands at present, the already-known records can 

 only be repeated, viz.: — Lesmahagow (1866); Paisley (1891); 

 and Luss (previous to 1895). 



30. M. AMPiiiBius (Z.)-- Water- Vole. Common and of general 

 distribution in mainland waters. It occurs on some of the 

 Loch Lomond islands, but I have no knowledge of it on the 

 islands of the Firth. The black variety is not infrequent; 

 Mr. W. Hannan Watson (in lit., 19th October, 1898) reports 

 numbers at Hairlaw Dam, Renfrewshire; and one from Tighna- 

 bruaich was shown at a meeting of this Society on 27th March, 

 1900. The variety was first recognised as occurring in " Clyde " 

 from examples taken at Ballantrae in August, 1842; but by 



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