Mr HaTvie-Brown on the Squirrel in Great Britain. 145 



them to be in the Glen for the last forty years at least," — say 

 as early as 1839, — and he adds : " Ten or twelve years ago I 

 was on the hill between Balquhidder and Glendochart, and 

 came upon one on the very top of the hill, where there was 

 neither house nor tree of any kind within miles." This leads 

 up to the treatment of the subject under Argyleshire (q.v.). 



This appearance, so early, indicates a westward movement 

 from Dunkeld and Taymouth. At this time they must have 

 been still rare at Crieff and Monzie (see further on, p. 146), 

 and we have seen that they had become abundant at Tay- 

 mouth. 



In evidence of their slow advance into the districts west of 

 Methven (i.e., Crieff and Monzie), the late Sir Thomas Mon- 

 crieffe's head gamekeeper, who is a very observant man, and 

 has a capital memory, and who takes great interest in natural 

 history objects, was born at Logiealmond Lodge in 1828. 

 "The only old wood then existing in the district was com- 

 posed of three small patches of old Scotch fir, two of them 

 lying between Logiealmond Lodge and the river Almond 

 to the south and east, the other about two miles to the west- 

 ward, near the Bridge of Buchanty." The keeper, when six 

 years old, viz., in 1834, remembers his father killing a squirrel 

 in one of the woods called the Craigend. There, they were 

 not uncommon, but appear to have been rare elsewhere in the 

 neighbourhood. The late Sir Thomas Moncrieffe's gamekeeper 

 also relates that a tailor, when going to his work at his father's 

 house, about the year 1832 or 1833, lost a day's work by 

 chasing and trying to catch a squirrel, believing it to be a fox, 

 for which he naturally got well laughed at. The late Sir 

 Thomas Moncrieffe gives me the further information : " That 

 his keeper tells him there was no wood on the range of hills 

 between Birnam, near Dunkeld, and Crieff, except some very 

 young larch plantations about Glenalmond. These," continues 

 the late Sir Thomas, " were probably planted subsequent to 

 1825. It must be remembered, however, that squirrels often 

 travel across country far from wood." One seen by him, 

 more than a mile from any wood, took refuge in a cairn, and 

 like most squirrels found upon open moors, and far from 

 wood, was travelling in a northward direction. 



VOL. VI. - K 



