THE DESTRUCTION OF VERMIN AND PESTS 181 



RED DEER, SQUIRRELS AND OTHERS 



Other creatures, beginning their course innocent of 

 serious evil, have, through excessive increase in numbers, 

 developed into formidable pests. The Red Deer with the 

 Rabbit and Hare have been the objects of emergency legis- 

 lation during the years of the War (see pp. 212 and 215), 

 and the Squirrel shares with them unenviable notoriety. In 

 another place (p. 295) I have indicated the rapidity of the 

 Squirrel's spread and multiplication in the northern counties, 

 following upon its introduction at Beaufort Castle on the 

 Beauly Firth in 1844, but of recent years its increase there 

 has been phenomenal. The Highland Squirrel Club was 

 formed in 1903 to counter the devastation wrought in the 

 woods of eastern Ross-shire, part of Sutherland, and that 

 portion of Inverness north of the Caledonian Canal. The 

 results of its activities are astounding, when it is recollected 

 that three-quarters of a century ago the Squirrel was un- 

 known in the district. During the fifteen years up to the 

 end of 1917, 60,450 Squirrels had been killed; in 1903 alone 

 4640 were destroyed, in 1907 6628, and 1909 provided a 

 record of 7199 individuals 1 . The price paid for tails by the 

 Club varied from $d. to \d, 



With such nuisances no sympathy can be felt, although 

 the destruction of Owls, which themselves are pest destroyers, 

 and of Stoats and Weasels, which probably do almost as much 

 good by their enmity to rats and mice as they do harm, is 

 regrettable; but there is one so-called pest regarding the 

 destruction of which the naturalist can have nothing but 

 regret the little Dipper or Water Ouzel. 



1 On account of the interest of this warfare against the Squirrel in the 

 North. I give the annual numbers of squirrels killed since the Club was 

 started, from lists kindly sent me by Mr A. H. Duncan, the Secretary : 



1903 4,640 1907 6,628 1911 3)56 I 9 I 5 2,601 



1904 3,988 1908 3,197 1912 3,679 1916 2,692 



1905 3>43i i99 7,!99 I9 r 3 3.283 1917 3,998 



1906 4,007 1910 4,235 1914 3,816 



