82 RODENTIA 



parts of the uplands from Lanarkshire through Peeblesshire 

 to Selkirkshire, and extends along the Pentlands well into 

 Midlothian. There are some now on the Moorfoots also, 

 but I have not yet had any indications of its existence 

 on the Lammermoors, though I have made a number 

 of inquiries on the point. Mr Harvie-Brown informs me 

 that it is not uncommdn in tlie central range of the Stirling- 

 shire hills. 



It is generally understood that we owe their presence 

 on the southern uplands entirely to the action of a few 

 of tlie hill proprietors, by whom they have been introduced 

 at different times within the last fifty to sixty years. 

 Alston dates its existence in the south of Scotland from 

 about 1860, but this is much too recent, as the follow- 

 ing extracts show. In Chambers's " History of Peebles- 

 shire," published in 1864, the following interesting passage 

 occurs at page 525 : — " The Variable or Alpine Hare is now 

 not unfrequent on the hills, but is known to have been intro- 

 duced from the north by the late Mr Clason of Hallyards 

 about seventeen or eighteen years ago. The first of the 

 species in Peeblesshire were set free by Mr Clason on one of 

 the highest hills in the parish of Manor. The species seems 

 now to be fully established and naturalised over a very con- 

 siderable district, extending many miles from the original 

 spot." It would appear, however, to have been known in 

 Manor a number of years before the date here assigned, 

 as it is included in a list of the quadrupeds of the parish 

 published in the "New Statistical Account" in 1834. An 

 extract from one of Mr Alston's note-books, published 

 in the "Proceedings" of the Natural History Society of 

 Glasgow, vol. v., p. 73, records " that a Mr Hunter over at 

 Glenbuck [on the borders of Lanarkshire and Ayrshire] 

 turned out a number " about 1861. Mr B. N. Peach tells 



