Mr Harvie-Broion on the Squirrel in Gh^eat Britain. 135 



An account gleaned on the spot by Mr Robert Gray, how- 

 ever, differs somewhat from any of the above accounts, in 

 so far that the introduction is believed to have been made, 

 in the first instance, by a butler in the service of the Mar- 

 quis of Ailsa about 1872. The dates given above, however, 

 prove an earlier presence of the species. 



FURTHER EXTENSION FROM DALKEITH AND MINTO CENTRES TO 

 THE COUNTIES NORTH OF THE FIRTHS OF FORTH AND 

 CLYDE. 



Stirlingshire. 



Following the combined armies from Dalkeith and Minto, 

 we find them pressing northward through the isolated por- 

 tion of Dumbartonshire into Stirlingshire. Seeing, how- 

 ever, that squirrels had reached as far north as Kincardine 

 parish in the south of Perth, by 1821, and only got west- 

 ward to Campsie about 1827 — the year of the introduc- 

 tion at Minto — it is perhaps more correct to assign the 

 population of the following counties direct to the earlier 

 restoration at Dalkeith, only assisted by the later fresh 

 blood and vigour of Minto. 



The earliest negative evidence of the squirrel in Stirling- 

 shire, which I have been able to get is from an old woman 

 still alive, who relates that when she was young she had 

 heard of the ''strange beast;" and who, in her ignorance, had 

 pursued and captured a weasel, believing it to be a squirrel, 

 which latter she was desirous to have, hecanse she had heard 

 that they made fine pets. She got well bitten, and found she 

 had caught a Tartar. This was somewhere about the year 

 1810. Somewhat later than this, another person was bitten 

 by a tamed squirrel, and bears the mark to this day, which 

 mark I have seen. This would be about the year 1820 or 

 1825. 



Squirrels are well remembered to have entered the county 

 in the beginning of this century, according to various accounts 

 sometime between 1810 and 1815. One was seen crossing 

 the Forth and Clyde Canal going north, and coming from the 

 isolated part of Dumbartonshire. It was sitting upon a chip 



