46 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



above referred to. Appin and Lismore were always well 

 wooded tracts, so it will be seen that Argyleshire was at an 

 early period suitable for the safe harbourage of the squirrel, 

 as well as of other wild animals. It is not surprising, there- 

 fore, to find an unusually perfect chronological chain of evi- 

 dence regarding the squirrel in Argyleshire. 



Sibbald wrote in 1684 — " Sciurus . . . in meridionalis 

 Plagae Scotise Sylvis reperitur." * 



Alastair MacDonald, the famous Jacobite bard of Argyle- 

 shire, thus speaks of the squirrel in his poem of " The Bark 

 of Clanranald," which is justly considered his masterpiece :f 



" XV. Six [men] were chosen as a reserve, in case any of 

 those named should fail or be carried overboard by a sea, so 

 tliat one of these might take his place. 



* ' Let six rise now, quick and ready, 



Handy, lively. 

 Who will go, and come, and leap 



Up and down her, 

 Like a hare on mountain top. 



Dogs pursuing. 

 Who can climb the tight, hard shrouds 



Of slender hemp, 

 Nimbly as the May-time squirrel 



Up a tree trunk. "J 



In 1741 MacDonald also notices the Gaelic name of the 

 squirrel — Febrag — in his " Gaelic Vocabulary," and is the 

 second author who does so. 



1760-1780.— "Maclntyre, another Gaelic bard of note," 

 as Eev. A. Stewart informs me, " who lived in Glenorchy, 



* *' Scotia lUustrata." " Hist. Animalium in Scotise." 

 + A. MacDonald composed his descriptive poems between 1725 and 1745, 

 about which time he was resident " on the farm of Corrie-Vullin, at the base 

 of Ben Hiant, adjacent to Castle Mingary," in Ardnamurchan. He was buried 

 with his kindred on Eilan Feoinain, in Loch Shiel. I am indebted to Rev, 

 Alexander Stewart and Mr James Macpherson for information and references 

 in this connection, and to the latter gentleman for the above translation 

 by Sheriff Nicholson. The title of the poem here quoted is " Boennacha 

 Luinge," i.e., "The Blessing of the Galley or Bark [of Clanranald]." 



X Literally, "Nimbly as squirrels of the May-time (can climb) up a tree 

 trunk of the dense wood," e. (7., " CAo grad ri feoragan Ceitein : Ri Crann 

 v^.o-choill,'' no as a prefix meaning very, exceedingly : ro-choill, a very wood, a 

 true wood. 



