RE-APPEARANCE OF THE SQUIRREL. 49 



in reference to the neighbourhood of Gordon 

 Castle, I was much surprised, and not less 

 interested, to find that the squirrel, Sciurus vul- 

 yftris, by no means rare and still gradually 

 increasing, had been totally unknown even to 

 young men in the days of their boyhood. In the 

 highlands of Banffshire, indeed, many shepherds 

 and foresters with whom I conversed had never 

 seen the animal at all, even in the wooded glens 

 and corries a familiar description of its charac- 

 teristic form, actions, and habits failing to enable 

 them to identify it and on pursuing my inquiries 

 still farther in the lower districts, where it is now 

 of common occurrence, I found the popular belief 

 universal that it was unknown in Moray shire and 

 Banffshire until a few years ago, when "the Pilgrim 

 Fathers " of the race were supposed to have crossed 

 the Caledonian Canal from Invernesshirc, and that 

 even these, like the lords of the creation, were 

 descended from a single pair, which were intro- 

 duced a few years before by a benevolent lady, who, 

 having frequently admired their lively habits and 

 sprightly attitudes during her visits to England, 

 created a Garden of Eden for them within the 

 sacred precincts of her park. Not long afterwards 

 I had the opportunity of becoming acquainted with 

 that accomplished naturalist, the Rev. Dr. Gordon 



E 



