284 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



views on the subject, to his ' Natural History of Dee Side and 

 Braemar,' posthumously published in 1855: — " Hypudceus ater. 

 Black Vole. Black Dog or Water Dog. Generally distributed, 

 but local ; not frequent along the Dee ; mostly on grassy banks 

 of the larger tributaries ; pretty numerous in Braemar, in several 

 places along the Dee and the Clunie." * 



(5). Moray Firth. — "In the deer forest of Gaik, in Inver- 

 ness-shire, which I rented and occupied from 1863 to 1871, these 

 animals were then very common on all the burns of the upper 

 ground ; the common form was also frequent, but did not, so far 

 as I could discover, frequent the high plateaux of the forest" 

 (Lord Lilford, in litt. May 16th, 1891). Mr. J. G. Millais writes : 

 — " The Black Water Vole is found all over Inverness-shire and 

 Ross-shire in the streams and ditches, though it is but sparingly 

 distributed. In these counties I have never seen any but this 

 variety." Mr. E. W. H. Blagg writes : — " I have a [black] speci- 

 men in my collection, which I received from Elgin, May, 1886 ; 

 I think from Mr. Dunbar Brander." 



(6). Sutherland and Caithness. — Messrs. Harvie Brown 

 and Buckley furnish an extended note regarding Sutherland, and 

 one which is too interesting to be passed over here, especially as 

 the work from which it is taken is out of print and already rare : — 

 " The black variety is, in our opinion, more abundant than the 

 brown in the west, and is at least equally common in the east, 

 where it haunts every burn except those that are too rocky. 

 This interesting species appears to thrive well amongst the rocky 

 limestone formation, finding ready shelter in the innumerable 

 cracks and passages through the rock, but we have not met with 

 it in the very rocky burns of other formations. Mr. Ben. N. 

 Peach observed the black variety commonly in Durness." t The 

 same authors state regarding Caithness : — " Until lately Mr. Wm. 

 Reid believed there was only the brown variety ; but a young 

 angler, when out fishing in a small feeder of the Wick river, came 

 upon a number of black ones, some of which he killed, and he 

 gave Mr. Reid the skin of one. A part of this skin sent by 

 Mr. Reid for our inspection does not appear quite so black as 

 many others we have examined, but is much blacker than the 



* ' Fauna of Braemar,' p. 387. 



f ' Fauna of Sutherland and Caithness,' p. 92. 



