440 Mr. Tate on the Red or Common Squirrel. 



determined ; and mixed up with them were a few pieces of 

 bent grass quite undigested, and which may have been taken 

 up when this Falcon was feeding on beetles. 



Notice of the Med or Common Squirrell, (Sciurus vulgaris, 

 Li?in). By George Tate, F.G.S. 



At the present time, when the origin and the distribution 

 of species are keenly discussed, it is desirable to record the 

 appearance or disappearance of particular plants or animals 

 in a district. Mr. J. C. Langlands having reported to me 

 the occurrence of common squirrells at Old Bewick, in 1868, 

 where they had never been seen before, I was induced to 

 inquire whence they had come, especially as they are very 

 partially distributed in Northumberland, and are of recent 

 origin in the northern part of the county. Finding that they 

 had appeared not long ago at Coupland, I obtained informa- 

 tion from Mr. M. T. Culley, Avho states — " They were first 

 seen in Coupland woods about ten years ago ; they feed on 

 fir cones, and are becoming very numerous, and are frequently 

 seen running on the la^^n in front of the house. No one has 

 the least idea where they came from, but they are spreading 

 into the neighbouring woods. One is said to have been seen 

 in Akeld dene, about seventeen years ago, which probably 

 was the beginning of them in the neighbourhood." 



Most probably, however, these squirrels had migrated into 

 Northumberland from the adjoining counties of Roxburgh- 

 shire and Berwickshire, in which they are now numerous, 

 pretty extensively distributed, and increasing ; though even 

 in these counties they are of comparatively modern introduc- 

 tion. They are plentiful in the neighbourhood of Dunse, 

 .Coldstream, Melrose, Jedburgh, Hawick, and other places. 

 Dr Charles Stuart informs me that when he came to Berwick- 

 shire, nearly twenty-one years ago, no squirrels were in the 

 neighbourhood of Chirnside, though they were then in the 

 fir woods of Dunse Castle ; but by and bye they extended to 

 the Chirnside district, and now abound in the Pistol planta- 

 tions on the Blackadder estate. In the woods about Wolfelee, 

 Hawick, where they are now so numerous and destructive as 

 to be a perfect pest, they have not been resident so much as 

 half a century. But they had rapidly increased after their 

 first appearance ; for when Sir Walter Elliott left his home — 

 Wolfelee — in 1820, there was not one in that part of the 

 country, but when he was at home, in 1835, he found his 

 father offering a reward for every squirrel killed. 



