Mr Harvie-Broiun on the Sq^uirrel in Great Britain. 139 



Syme found a nest the year before in Comrie Dean, Perth- 

 shire, adjoining. 



In Clackmannan, we find that, while unknown around 

 Alloa, when the '' Old Stat. Account " was written, it had 

 become numerous by 1841.* The Rev. P. Brotherston,-|- who 

 writes a somewhat able article on the natural history of the 

 parish of Alloa, takes occasion to notice the service done 

 by the squirrel in planting acorns, thus supplying future 

 oak trees for the British Navy. X 



I have been unable to obtain, as yet, any other statistics 

 from Clackmannan to enable me to fix an earlier date for 

 their arrival, but if numerous in 1841, it is reasonable to sup- 

 pose that they arrived sometime sooner — say 1837. "We have 

 before seen that in the space of three or four years they in- 

 crease largely. § Very probably, however, it arrived even 

 earlier than this. 



Fife. 



No mention of the species is made in the " New Stat. 

 Account " of the county. The earliest date I have is 

 1825, when they appeared upon the estate of Lord Eosslyn, 

 near Dysart. The species at this time, and even for 

 some years later, must, however, have been far from 

 generally known in any of the country north of the Firth 

 of Forth. 



Another correspondent assigns the date of the first appear- 

 ance of the squirrel in Fifeshireto 1834, remembering in con- 

 nection therewith a very animated discussion which took 

 place concerning it. He saw the squirrel himself, but the 



* "New Stat. Acct.," Clackmannan, p. 9. 



+ The Rev, P. Brotberston, later, was Mr A. G. More's authority for the 

 county, while the latter gentleman was compiling his paper " On the Distri- 

 bution of Birds of Great Britain during the Nesting Season" {vide Ibis, 

 1865). 



t This reference to the planting of acorns was no doubt called forth by 

 Lord Melville's remarks on the subject of the British Navy supply of timber, 

 written in 1810, and referred to and quoted by Sir Walter Scott in 1836 (see 

 *'Misc. Prose Works of Sir W. Scott, Bart," vol. xxi., p. 4). 



§ Vide under Roxburgh — Mr Jerdon's note and other evidence (aritea, 

 p. 122). 



