130 Proceedings of the Boyal Physical Society. 



townshire almost unknown. There are now, however, plenty 

 of squirrels in the Camlougan woods (Earl of Mansfield's), 

 aad Mr Service thinks they probably made their first appear- 

 ance about the same time that they appeared elsewhere in 

 the county — i.e., about 1862 or 1863. 



Kirkcudbright. 



Squirrels did not arrive in Kirkcudbright before 1860 or 

 1861. My correspondent, Eobert Service, Esq. (Secretary, 

 Dumfries and Galloway Naturalists' Club), tells me he did not 

 see them commonly before 1868, and he is of opinion that 

 they came "from Cumberland through Dumfriesshire," which, 

 if it is the case — and I see good reason for the belief — points 

 to a further exemplification of the strong north-westerly 

 pressure, and the comparatively weak south-westerly. 



Arriving in the south of Lanark as early as 1841, of course 

 there appears the possibility that they might come southwards 

 to Kirkcudbright by 1864 ; but I hold that this is contrary to 

 all our experience of their pioneering movements, especially 

 through an unwooded country, and when there was freer 

 exit in more northerly directions, in better timbered tracts. 



In 1861, they are reported as seen for the first time in 

 Buittle parish;* and, in 1862, squirrels are reported as 

 numerous in Carruchan, Dalscairth, and Hillswood, in Tro- 

 queer parish, in the east of the county. 



In 1865-66, they were first observed in Parton parish, at 

 Corsock, by Mr John CroU, and it is Mr Croll's impres- 

 sion that they came up the river Urr, as they were seen a 

 twelvemonth before at Glenlair. Mr CroU further writes, re- 

 garding the direction from whence they came : " When I was 

 in the Hawick district, or Teviotdale, they were very abund- 

 ant, and larger than here, and it is said they went from there 

 to the district of Langholm, and from there to the Annan, and 

 from that again to Nithsdale, and round the Solway shore by 

 Dalbeattie, and up to this quarter. Some years ago one was seen 

 with a piece of stick drawing it to Urr. It then wrought it 

 into the water, then leaped on it and crossed the Urr on it to 



* And. James Matheson, Dalbeattie. 



