BA^'K VOLE 71 



no e%'idence to point to, as the earlier writers seldom dis- 

 tinguished between the two species — indeed, MacGillivray is 

 the only one who does so with regard to the Forth area, and 

 the only locality he mentions is near Bathgate, in the county 

 of Linlithgow, where specimens were procured by 'Six Durham 

 "Weir (" British Quadrapeds," 1838, p. 272). The only other 

 Scotch locality given by MacGilH^-ray for the animal is near 

 Kelso, and on Gth May 1840 Dr Johnstone announced its 

 occurrence at Mayfield in Berwickshire ("Proceedings" of 

 the Berwickshire Xaturalists' Club, voL l, p. 214). Faldon- 

 side is another Border locality, in which, according to 

 Dr Hardy (op, cit., x., 278), it was abundant in 1883. 

 During the last four years I have observed it at Eosetta 

 and other places near Peebles, and Mr John Thomson has 

 sent me one from Stobo, a few miles higher up the Tweed, 

 where he tells me it is common about potatoe-pits during 

 winter. ^Ir Harvie-Brown has sent it from Stirlingshire. 



Seeing so little has been recorded of the Bank Yole in the 

 neighbourhood of Edinburgh, the following facts from my own 

 experience may not be without interest In January 1886 

 I obtained one which had been killed by a weasel in Dalmeny 

 Park, close to the Cramond ferry, and I then learned from 

 the ferryman that the animal was common in the park, and 

 did considerable damage during winter and spring to carna- 

 tions and other flowering plants in his garden. The same 

 complaint is made against it by Mr Bruce, gardener, Colinton 

 House, from whom I have received many examples, and Mr 

 Mackenzie, factor, Mortonhall, has also found it very trouble- 

 some in his garden of late. From Cramond I have obtained 

 some very typic-al specimens, one of which I exhibited at a 

 meeting of the Eoyal Physical Society on loth January 1890, 

 Since then I have trapped numbers in the following localities, 

 namely, by the banks of the Braid bum below Comiston, on 



