THE HEDGEHOG OR URCHIN 49 



Roebuck), and the suburban gardens of big towns and cities. In 

 Wales it has been found living at 1684 feet, and its dead carcase at 

 2500 feet (Forrest) ; but one said to have been found recently in 

 Kensington Gardens, London (Harding, Field, 8th April 191 1, 703), 

 had most probably escaped from captivity. In Man it is now common 

 everywhere, but, having no local names outside of dictionaries, is thought 

 by Kermode to have been introduced early in the nineteenth century. 



In the Lowlands of Scotland its numbers are certainly not less 

 than in England. Alston, for instance, described it as " very common " ; 

 in Dumfries, Service has had no less than eight in full view within 

 twenty yards (Anfi. Scott. Nat. Hist., 1901, 233) ; and close on a 

 hundred were killed in 1903 on one estate near Edinburgh (W. Evans). 



Its status in the mountainous parts of Scotland, although it ranges 

 to the extreme north, is still somewhat obscure, and, now that it has 

 been artificially introduced in many localities, is not likely to be 

 satisfactorily explained. W. Evans collected a number of old records 

 relative to the northern limits of its range at the close of the eighteenth 

 and beginning of the nineteenth century. These are somewhat con- 

 flicting, but this much seems clear, namely, that the animal was at that 

 time found well to the north both of the Forth and of the Tay. As 

 pointed out by Evans, it was recorded for Tillicoultry, Clackmannan, in 

 1795; Dowally, near Dunkeld, in 1798; Forfarshire in "tolerable 

 plenty" before 1813 ; and as far as the Moray Firth by 1828. Harvie- 

 Brown and Buckley's "Moray" records of 1829, 1844, 1855, and 1862 

 show clearly that it was locally common in that area in the second 

 quarter of last century. Its general reputation of late years is that of 

 a species with an extending range, a point in regard to which many 

 writers have been, perhaps, too prone to follow the lead of predecessors. 

 In 18S0 Alston recorded it as rapidly spreading to the northwards, but 

 as yet unknown in Sutherland. Its status in that county, as well as in 

 Caithness, is complicated by introductions, but there are records of its 

 occurrence in the former by William MacKenzie {Ann. Scott. Nat. Hist., 

 1897, 191) in 1872 and 1897; and in 1906 F. G. Gunnis wrote that it 

 was increasing at Brora {Journ. cit., 1906, 185). In Caithness, Lillie, 

 a correspondent of Evans's, informed him that he has never seen a 

 hedgehog, but " there have been stories of persons finding them," and 

 " they are sometimes taken to Caithness from other districts as pets, 

 and may possibly have sometimes escaped." Bruce, however, on the 

 authority of MacNicol, states that five have been taken in the parish 

 of Reay within the four or five years preceding 1907. There are also a 

 few records from other mountainous districts, as East Ross and the 

 adjoining parts of Inverneiss, where the animal was said to be plentiful 

 in one of the wilder and less frequented glens in 1893 (Harvie-Brown 

 and Buckley); West Ross, where it first appeared in 1890 [and is 



