44 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



and we find unmistakable traces of oak stumps over many 

 parts of the central Stirlingshire hills. Topography even is 

 not without its teaching in this connection, for we have, 

 above the present town of Denny, a range of hill called at 

 the present time " The Darrach," signifying " a place full of 

 oaks," and forming a continuation with the Campsie Fells. 

 The probability is — nay, almost the certainty is — that a con- 

 tinuous great oak forest stretched south from the edge of the 

 Caledonian pines to the Campsie Fells. This is no great 

 distance either in a direct line as the crow flies, or, shall we 

 say, as the squirrel travels. If so, what more likely than 

 that our little friend should sometimes find a change of diet 

 desirable ; and, as indeed he does at the present day, make 

 annual migrations to feed on the plenteous supply of what 

 he loves so well — the acorn and the hazel nut, or beech-mast ? 

 It may be said, " but this is mere hypothesis." Granted at 

 once; but still I hold it is one worth advancing, and not 

 without its points of interest connected with the former dis- 

 tribution of the squirrel in Scotland. 



To sum up : My present idea is, that squirrels following 

 the coast districts as they advanced northward, avoided the 

 colder interior of the south of Scotland, but spread more 

 generally over the interior north of Forth and Clyde, where 

 they found better shelter, and pine forests to protect them 

 from the weather. That, in the time of harvest and the 

 ripening of hazel and other food, local migrations took place, 

 but to no great distance south of their winter home ; to what 

 exact distance, we cannot now say with certainty. We have 

 evidence of similar local migrations at the present day in- 

 fluenced by change of seasons and food supplies. 



We now begin to tread on firmer ground, however, and in 

 bringing forward aU the evidence I have been able to collect, 

 I believe the most satisfactory arrangement is to enter the 

 various items chronologically under each county. Beginning, 

 then, with Dumbartonshire — having already disposed of Stir- 

 lingshire — we can, I think, dismiss it in a very few words. 



Dumbartonshire. 

 Squirrels must have been extinct in this county long prior 



