GO RODENTIA 



Order RODENTIA. 



SQUIEREL. 



SCIURUS VULGARIS L. 



At the present time the Squirrel is a common animal 

 throughout the length and breadth of the district ; indeed it 

 is safe to say there is scarcely a wood of any extent in any 

 part of it which does not contain at least a few. Yet it was 

 not always so, for apparently the Squirrel was either entirely 

 absent or very scarce in the south of Scotland when intro- 

 duced at Dalkeith in the latter part of last century. Mr 

 Harvie-Brown, who has made the history of the animal a 

 special study, and, as the outcome of his investigations, has 

 published a long and interesting paper in the " Proceedings " 

 of the Royal Physical Society (vols. v. and vi.), considers 

 there is no evidence of its prior existence in this section of 

 the country, and lays little stress on the statement in the 

 "New Statistical Account " of Berwickshire (1841, page 299), 

 that " the Red Squirrel is said to have been at one time a 

 denizen of Dunglass woods, in Cockburnspath parish." I 

 cannot help thinking, however, that it must at one time have 

 been indigenous in the Lowlands, and have gradually retired 

 to the Highlands in consequence of the destruction of the 

 ancient woods and forests ; otherwise, what are we to make 

 of Sibbald's statement (" Scotia Illustrata," 1684), — " In 

 Meridionalis Plagae Scotise Sylvis reperitur " (It is found in 

 the woods of the southern part of Scotland) ? There can be 

 no doubt, however, that the south-eastern counties owe their 

 present stock very largely, if not entirely, to the introduction 



