140 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



fact was hardly credited by the rest of the party who were 

 shooting in the neighbourhood of Markinch, and who con- 

 sidered " that no such animal as a squirrel existed in Fife." 

 Before the following spring, however, another squirrel was 

 killed at Falkland, and since then they have constantly in- 

 creased, and are now — 1880 — very numerous. 



Captain H. W. Feilden writes, under date of 15th December 

 1878, and gives me the following account of the species in 

 the county. 



" Thirty years ago there were no squirrels in the East 

 Neuk of Fife — {i.e., say 1848). They had not extended so 

 far as Kinglassie wood, a large fir and spruce-covered area 

 which lay between St Andrews and Crail. I understand 

 this wood has been felled.* Neither were there any squirrels 

 in Airdrie wood, not far from Crail. The absence of these 

 animals in the East Neuk, thirty years ago, was impressed on 

 my mind by my father bringing a couple of dead ones from 

 beyond Cupar. These were stuffed and cased in the hall of 

 Cambo House, Sir Thomas Erskine's residence, where we 

 then lived. 



" Five-and-twenty years ago (say 1854), squirrels were 

 very numerous in the Howe of Fife {i.e., the fertile Strath 

 drained by the Eden) to the eastward of Cupar. They were 

 abundant amongst the timber of Eankeilour Park, and the 

 large woods which clothed the Mount-Hill, an eminence in 

 the parish of Monimail, on which the Hopetoun Monu- 

 ment stands. They were common in a large wood near 

 Springfield, at Lower Eankeilour (Creighton-M'Gill's), in the 

 woods around Ladybank Junction, and at Melville (Lady 

 Elizabeth Cartwright's). I never remember seeing them at 

 Wemyss Hall (my uncle's, now my cousin's). I cannot help 

 thinking that squirrels were found at Birkhill (Wedderburn's) 

 near Taymouth ; but, remember, it is five-and-twenty years 

 since I lived in Fife." 



" Twenty years ago," writes Dr Mackintosh of Murthly 



* Kinglassie wood was cut down in 1848-49, as I am informed by Mr W. J. 

 Kerr. Mr Kerr has been told that squirrels had reached Kinglassie wood, 

 and were numerous there before it was cut down ; but we have Captain 

 Feilden's record to the contrary. 



