Mr Harvie-Broivn on the Squirrel in Great Britain. 141 



{in lit.), " They were common all over the county of Fife," — 

 say 1859. 



At present there appear to be no squirrels in the East 

 Neuk of Fife. Doubtless the plantations are too small, and 

 not continuous enough. 



They have, however, arrived near Newburgh-on-Tay, as I 

 am informed by Alexander Laing, Esq. 



Perthshire. 



EXTENSION FROM DALKEITH AND MINTO CENTRES. 



The route which would most easily lead them from Stirling- 

 shire into Perthshire, by the date of 1821, would be across 

 the Old Bridge of Frew,* which connects Kippen and 

 Gargunnock parishes with Kilmadock and Kincardine, in 

 which latter parish we find the first record of them in the 

 south of Perthshire. -j- The uniformly deep, ditch-like river 

 Forth would offer a natural barrier to their advance, except 

 where the Bridge and Ford of Frew, and Bridge of Drip, near 

 Stirling, afforded them a means of crossing, \ but I have no 

 data showing their advance over the latter, except that of 

 their arrival in Clackmannan. To reach Clackmannan they 

 must have crossed the Forth. 



The whole of the south of Perthshire no doubt owes its 

 squirrel population to the southern centres at Dalkeith and 

 Minto. 



From Kincardine parish, in lack of more continuous data, 

 we go on till we arrive at Crieff, where its occurrence is men- 

 tioned, and its rarity indicated by being classed as a " foreign 

 animal," along with the pheasant and woodcock,§ and thence 

 we may, perhaps, follow them, as still coming from Dalkeith 



* The Bridge of Frew was built over the old Ford of Frew in 1876. The 

 only other bridge between that and Stirling — the Bridge of Drip — was built 

 early in the present century. 



t "New Stat. Acct.," Perthshire, p. 125. The passage is : "Although the 

 squirrel was unknown in this parish till about twenty years ago, yet it now 

 abounds in almost all our plantations." 



t See remarks under " Laws regulating the Extension of Range of the 

 Species," further on, p. 165. 



§ "New Stat. Acct," Perthshire, p. 495. 



