62 RODENTIA 



numerous at Woodhouselee " (op. cit., vol. xv., p. 439). Then 

 in 1808 Patrick Neill records it for Newhall, which is much 

 farther up the Esk, and where it had already given its name 

 to the Squirrel's Haugh, adding, " introduced from England, 

 but now common " (" Gentle Shepherd," i., pp. 270 and 279) ; 

 and it is evidently the same naturalist who, in Pennecuik's 

 "Tweeddale" (ed. 1815, p. 103), states that the animal was 

 " Introduced on the North Esk, from England." This looks 

 not unlike a separate introduction, but it may, of course, 

 merely refer to the Dalkeith one. In the course of the next few 

 years it had spread through Linlithgowshire into Stirlingshire, 

 and even beyond the Forth into Clackmannan and South 

 Perthshire, where no doubt colonists from the north were 

 met, so that when the "New Statistical Account" was 

 drawn up it was frequently alluded to. The colonisation of 

 Fife seems to have been entered on somewhat later, and 

 to have proceeded more slowly. Peeblesshire is also supposed 

 to have been colonised from Dalkeith (the doubt expressed 

 in Chambers's " History of Peeblesshire," Appendix, p. 525, is 

 scarcely worth considering) ; but Koxburghshire, Selkirkshire, 

 and Berwickshire are thought to have been stocked mainly from 

 Minto, where several which the gardener there had obtained 

 from Dalkeith in 1827 shortly afterwards made their escape. 

 According to Dr Hardy, it appeared in Penmanshiel wood, 

 in the east of Berwickshire, as early as 1830 or 1831 ; and 

 1838 or 1839 is the date fixed by Mr Kelly for their first 

 appearance in Lauderdale, where they rapidly increased, and 

 necessitated an order for their destruction in 1849, in con- 

 sequence of the damage they were committing among the 

 young fir trees (" Proc. Berw. Nat. Club," viii., p. 527). 



The Squirrel has sometimes been accused of killing birds, 

 merely because their bones have been found in its dreys, but 

 as well might I argue that it occasionally kills sheep, because 1 



