Long-tailed field mouse of the outer Hebrides* 371 



British mammal, will no doubt make many naturalists sceptical ; 

 but I have only to say that in this case there is far less difficulty 

 in reconciling the fact than in that widely distributed and un- 

 isolated form, and it emphasizes my former remark that there is 

 much still to be learned about the British Mammalia, and that 

 English naturalists have hitherto culpably neglected their duty. 



Here let me again draw attention to the serial collection of 

 small European mammals (invaluable to any one working in this 

 line) being got together through the efforts of Mr. Oldfield 

 Thomas at the British Museum (Natural History), and I ask 

 any one who wishes to advance the knowledge of our native 

 animals to contribute. Bats and Harvest Mice, Mus minutus, 

 will be especially acceptable. 



When we consider the length of time which must have elapsed 

 since the islands of the Outer Hebrides were joined to the mainland, 

 the complete isolation, so far as small land mammals are con- 

 cerned, and the improbability of fresh blood being introduced, 

 save at very rare intervals, it would be surprising if differences 

 did not exist. Who can say whether these islands ever were joined 

 to Scotland ? or were not upheaved long prior to that country as it 

 now is ? Why do the rocks show such a vast difference ? I am 

 not much of a geologist, but I was very much struck with the 

 beauty of the rocks, the crumpled foliated gneiss being so different 

 from anything on the mainland. Then again we must consider 

 that for many years there has not been a tree or shrub on the 

 islands — I do not take into account the lately -planted specimens 

 at Stornoway Castle and elsewhere — and the heather is extremely 

 short. These are the conditions that the Field Mouse has to 

 put up with, and small blame to him if he puts on bigger boots 

 and wears less widely open ears in that land of rain. 



[Messrs. Harvie Brown and Buckley, in their ' Vertebrate Fauna of 

 Argyll and the Inner Hebrides,' 1892, state that they have examined 

 specimens of the Long-tailed Field Mouse from several mainland localities 

 from north to south, and that it is abundant in all the Inner Hebrides. 

 Nothing is said as to any variation in size or colour from the typical Mus 

 sylvaticm. In their previously-published volume on the Outer Hebrides 

 (1888) this species is only provisionally included in the list of Mammals, not 

 having been definitely recognised as occurring there at that date. — Ed.] 



