THE FAUNA OF THE OUTER HEBRIDES. 139 



parent form ; but that does not make it less interesting to find 

 out exactly their distribution and relationships to each other. 



At both the two places in Portugal where I have trapped 

 (Cintra and Estoril) I have succeeded in obtaining both forms, 

 and at each place the white-bellied one was found only in 

 the woods and gardens, where it competes with the ubiquitous 

 Mus sylvaticus, abundant, as usual, everywhere. Like its domes- 

 ticated relative, it is rather more cautious than other wild mice, 

 and one seldom catches a second specimen on the same spot 

 whence a first has been obtained, which is far from being the 

 case with Mus sylvaticus. 



Inhabiting the same places as Mus sylvaticus, it is difficult to 

 determine whether it makes burrows for itself or only trespasses 

 in the runs of that animal ; but on the whole I am inclined to 

 believe the latter is the case, and that in the absence of suitable 

 ready-made burrows it takes refuge in runs among logs and 

 stones, or in holes under the roots of trees. 



THE FAUNA OF THE OUTEE HEBRIDES. 

 By Radclyffe Walters. 



It has occurred to me that a few notes on the birds and 

 beasts which chiefly interest the sportsman, as observed during 

 six years' tenancy of a shooting in Lewis, may to some extent 

 supplement the observations recorded in Messrs. Harvie-Brown 

 and Buckley's ' Fauna of the Outer Hebrides.' 



The Galson shootings, being situated at the extreme north of 

 the island, must often be the first resting-place of birds on their 

 southward migration, and though a skilled naturalist with the 

 same opportunities would no doubt have ascertained many inter- 

 esting facts which escaped my notice, I offer my notes as being 

 at all events, as far as they go, the result of actual observation. 



I propose to take ' The Fauna of the Outer Hebrides ' as my 

 text-book, and only to record such observations as are at variance 

 with, or supplementary to, its statements. The references are in 

 all cases to the pages of that book. 



Common Hare (p. 38). — I only saw this three times, once in 

 1890, and twice in 1895 ; possibly the same Hare was seen twice 



m 2 



