Mr Harvie-Brown on the Sqicirrel in Great Britain. 123 



Northumberland ; or by descending still further to the Tweed 

 at Carham, they would reach Northumberland and spread 

 over the county without requiring to cross any bare hilly 

 parts. This latter route, I think, is the most probable one. 



Since this paper was first written out and communicated, 

 Professor Duns has informed me of an earlier extension from 

 the Minto Centre, reporting the squirrel to have been " not rare 

 at Langton and Dunse Castle a year or two before 1832," Pro- 

 fessor Duns also takes notice of having seen one himself there 

 about that time " with a tail almost white and the rest of the 

 body very light coloured," a variety which I have frequently 

 myself observed in the Loch Ard and south-west of Perthshire 

 district. Speaking of varieties, I can distinctly remember 

 chasing a black squirrel in a hedge-row not far from Dreghorn 

 Castle, near Edinburgh, in or about the year 1860, along 

 with a schoolfellow. 



Professor Duns' earlier date, I consider, comes still under 

 the Minto introduction, and since this paper was read, and 

 Mr Scot-Skirving and Professor Dans wrote to me on the 

 subject, I have received additional evidence, which to my 

 mind clearly shows that, to the Minto Centre belongs the ex- 

 tension through the whole south-east of Scotland up to the 

 Kirkcudbrightshire March, and that North-east Northumber- 

 land also owes its squirrels to the same source. 



Eastward, however, they reached the Eutherford estates, 

 about the year 1831, when the first seen was chased for half 

 a day by all the woodmen employed on the estate, which is 

 about ten miles east of Minto. They were protected for a time, 

 and increased in numbers. The first raid upon them was in 

 1837. Between that date and ISJro, thirty-two days were 

 devoted to killing squirrels by from two to five men. In 

 1844, forty-one were killed in six days. In 1845, two 

 men in seven days killed 117. In 1846, eighty-eight were 

 killed in seven days. From 1847 to 1855, thirteen days 

 were employed by from three to six woodmen in killing 

 squirrels. Since 1855, the keeper and forester, Maclean, 

 who is my informant, keeps them down by his own exertions. 

 He has never shot more than ten in a day. His terrier is 

 trained to " tree" them. 



