Vlll NOTES ON THE FAUNA OF CLYDESDALE. 



the eastern counties as far north as Aberdeenshire. 1 The Squirrel, 

 formerly unknown in many districts, especially in the Highlands, has 

 increased and spread of late years in a surprising manner. The first 

 of the species seen near Loch Lomond was killed, Mr. Colquhoun 

 tells us, in 1830 it is now so abundant there as to prove very 

 destructive to the young plantations. It is a very singular fact, 

 however, that the squirrel is still perfectly unknown in the south of 

 Ayrshire, a country which in many places seems admirably adapted 

 to its habits. Of rats and mice, the old Black Bat is almost, if not 

 quite, extinct. I have never been able to authenticate a single 

 instance of its occurrence of late years, the supposed specimens 

 invariably proving to belong to the black variety of the Water Vole. 

 The Brown Eat, House Mouse, and Wood Mouse are of course abun- 

 dant, as are the three British species of Vole. Of the Water Vole the 

 black variety, which Macgillivray separated as Arvicola ater, 2 occurs, 

 though not abundantly, in several districts. The Common Field Vole 

 is very plentiful, though it has not been recorded as occurring in the 

 west in such vast swarms as those which have this year devastated 

 the eastern Border counties. The Eed Field Vole (A. glareolus}, first 

 detected in Scotland by Macgillivray 3 and W. Thomson, 4 is hardly 

 less common in many places, and seems to be equally widely distri- 

 buted. Of the Hare family the common species is plentiful in the 

 low country and the Mountain or Blue Hare in the Highlands. The 

 latter has increased rapidly, as its numerous enemies have been 

 reduced in numbers by the game-keeper none were seen by Mr. 

 Colquhoun on the Loch Lomond hills before 1822, whereas they now 

 swarm as low down as Glen Luss and Glen Fruin. It has also been 

 recently introduced in the southern hill-country, and appears to be 

 spreading among the hills of Peeblesshire, and south Lanarkshire, and 

 Ayrshire, where its winter change of colour is observed to be much 

 less regular and complete than is the case in the north. Lastly, the 

 Rabbit is another animal which has increased to an astonishing 

 extent of late years, being now a perfect pest in many districts to 

 which it was formerly an absolute stranger. 



EDWARD R. ALSTON. 



1 Macgillivray, Nat. Lib. xvii. p. 257. 2 Trans. Wern. Soc. vi. p. 424. 



3 Nat. Lib. xvii. p. 272. * Mag. Not. Hist. 2d Ser. iii. p. 585. 



