OCCASIONAL NOTES. 225 
also at Carrickglass, County Longford, and Burton Hall Woods, County 
Carlow. As regards the County of Dublin, Squirrels are said to have 
crossed over from the County Wicklow some ten or fifteen years ago, 
Concerning all these animals, it would be very desirable to have further 
particulars, and we trust Mr. Mahony, at his leisure, will if possible supply 
them. So little comparatively has been published on the native mammals 
of Ireland, that any information respecting their existence, distribution, and 
scarcity, or otherwise, in the sister isle will be weleome.—Ep.] 
Mammatra Scortca.—At a meeting of the Glasgow Natural History 
Society, held on the 27th March last, Mr. James Lumsden, F.Z.S., read a 
paper ‘‘ On the Mammals of the Neighbourhood of Lochlomond.” He said 
that in the country which borders on Lochlomond there has been found a 
large proportion of the land mammals of Britain, but as in other districts 
several species which were at one time common are now rarely if ever met 
with, the advance of agriculture and the greater attention paid to the 
preservation of game having been most destructive to many of our wild 
animals, as well as to our rapacious birds. Within late years a great 
change has taken place in the mammalian fauna of this district. At one 
time wild cats were well known, and martens, if not often seen, betrayed 
their presence by their thieving habits; polecats were not uncommon ; 
rats (excepting a few of the harmless Mus rattus), rabbits, and squirrels 
were unknown; and mountain hares were seldom met with. How changed 
it is now! The wild cat, marten and polecat extinct, and the brown rat 
swarming in and around all farm-steadings, rabbits plentiful on hill and 
low country alike, and the mountain hare numerous on all the higher 
ranges. Squirrels are also common in all the plantations, and are extending 
their distribution. The nature of the ground around Lochlomond renders 
the district peculiarly suited for all kinds of mammals. In the agricultural 
land at the southern end of the Loch are found moles, shrews, mice and 
voles, while the more rugged ground at the northern end gives shelter to the 
wild animals and mountain hares. So far as is known no complete list of 
the mammals found throughout the Lochlomond district has ever been 
drawn up, although the subject has not been neglected by naturalists and 
others. Mr. Lumsden then submitted a list of twenty-six species found 
in the district, and stated that in the notes accompanying it he had not 
attempted to describe the habits of any of these, as this had already been 
ably done by others, but had only endeavoured to record the present as 
compared with the past state of the mammalian fauna in the particular 
neighbourhood which he had explored. 
Curtousty CoLourrp Moin.—A very pretty variety of the mole was 
brought in to be stuffed on the 17th February. Its fur was exactly the 
colour of orange-peel ; it had a reddish stripe down the belly and a few black 
stripes across the back. Unfortunately it was not sent till too far gone to 
2G 
