Mr Harvie-Brown on the Squirrel in Great Britain. 129 



squirrel lie ever saw alive was in 1860, in some trees at 

 Mountain Hall, near Dumfries. It was also the first seen 

 in the district by the late Thomas Aird, the Poet, who was 

 with him at the time. In 1862, Mr Lennon saw his second 

 squirrel on a tree near Bruce's Castle, at Lochmaben. 



Mr James Graham, gardener, Marchbankwood, near Moffat, 

 says : " The first squirrel I ever saw was at Symington, 

 Lanarkshire, in October 1854. I came to this parish — Moffat 

 — the following spring, and I am certain there were none here 

 then. I entered on my services at Marchbankwood in April 

 1858, and I cannot be positive of ever seeing a squirrel earlier 

 than 1862 in this place." He adds, " They have never been 

 abundant here, and I have only seen one this summer. I 

 think the past winter has had a severe effect upon them." * 



" In 1867," Mr John Maxwell, Inspector of poor. Maxwell- 

 town, Dumfries, says, " that he was at a funeral which 

 was going to Morton Churchyard (in Upper Mthsdale), from 

 Dumfries. When passing Ellisland (Burns' farm) a squirrel 

 jumped from one tree to another across the road, and over the 

 hearse, and so scarce were squirrels then that few of those 

 present knew what it was." f 



By 1870 we trace them into Tynron parish, in the west of 

 the county, where they had not appeared before on the 

 authority of Mr James Shaw, parish schoolmaster there, for 

 seven years or so previous to that date. 



In the south of the county they had become abundant, 

 however, before this time. Mr David Cram informed me that 

 in November 1861, he and a friend saw and counted seventy- 

 one squirrels within a quarter of a mile of road lined with oak 

 trees, in the middle of a wood in Canobie parish, at Langholm, 

 Dumfries. In Dumfriesshire squirrels were " becoming very 

 common in the neighbourhood of Dalscone wood, and are 

 rapidly spreading over the county." % They are still (1879) 

 quite rare on the western side of the Stewartry, and in Wig- 



* On tlie other hand, never have squirrels been so numerous in Perthshire 

 as they are this season — 1879 — local migrations causing a crowding to the 

 best sheltered places. 



t Oral information supplied to Mr Robert Service. 



X Newspaper slip : "Dumfries, Sept. 5, 1876." 



VOL. VI. I 



