NOTES AND QUERIES. 265 



born in Wick in 1814, but went to Kirkwall when he was twenty-two years 

 of age, and remained there thirty years in business as a bookseller. About 

 ten years ago Mr. Reid came to Nairn, where he has since resided. His 

 pursuit of natural history began with the fishes, and he was regarded as one 

 of the best authorities on that subject in the country. His residence in 

 Orkuey led him to devote more particular attention to birds, and he gave 

 valuable assistance to Baikie and Heddle in their standard work on Orkney 

 mammals and birds ; and in the splendid volumes by J. A. Harvie Brown 

 and T. E. Buckley, 'A Fauna of the Orkney Islands,' and ' A Fauna of 

 Sutherland, Caithness, and West Cromarty,' mention is made in the 

 handsomest manner of the obligations the authors were under to Mr. Reid. 

 It was a characteristic of the deceased gentleman that he placed at the 

 disposal of every naturalist who sought him out all the stores of his 

 information and experience. All his desire was to further the interests of 

 science. His letters to the various newspapers on topics connected with 

 his favourite pursuits would make a goodly volume. His communications 

 were invariably written in an animated, easy simple style, giving delight to 

 all who read them from their naturalness of description no less than from 

 the keenness of observation they showed. Besides his assistance to men of 

 science so freely given, Mr. Reid's letters tended very much to popularise 

 and stimulate the study of the habits of " beasts and birds " throughout the 

 country. It is much to be regretted he never threw his observation and 

 experiences, his lists of "finds" and discoveries, into a permanent form. 

 Some notes he did prepare, and his numerous cuttings he preserved, but 

 these form a very inadequate measure of the stores of knowledge he had 

 acquired of bird-life and the habits of the denizens of the deep. Mr. Reid 

 lived a very quiet, retired, simple life. Until a few weeks ago, he never 

 knew what a day's ill health was. A kindlier or more unaffectedly good- 

 hearted man never lived. Simple, upright in all his ways, and charitable 

 in all his thoughts, he was held in respect and esteem by all who knew 

 him. He had entered on his eightieth year, and passed away through the 

 simple decline of his natural strength. — Elgin Courier. 



MAMMALIA. 



Distribution of the Alpine Hare in S.W. Scotland. — In the S.W. 

 counties of Scotland it may be said that the White Hare now frequents all 

 the hills of 1500 feet and upwards, and very many of those of lower altitude. 

 A specimen has been shot so low down as the hill above Dalscairth. The 

 species was unknown in Dumfriesshire previous to so comparatively recent 

 a date as the winter of 1863, when it was first noticed on the Moffat, Evan 

 Water, Leadhills, and other ranges leading into Peebles and Selkirkshire. 

 It was understood at the time that these hares were the produce of some 

 that had been turned down at Glenbuck by a Mr. Hunter about 1861. 



