426 Quadrupeds. 



their numbers, by a line of traps laid across their most frequented 

 haunts in the newly-planted grounds. 



A. neglecta. "Aberarder, Invernesshire," 'Annals and Mag. of Nat. 

 History,' vii. The Rev. Leonard Jenyns is inclined to consider many 

 specimens of an Arvicola from Perthshire, as deserving to rank as a 

 distinct species under this name. Mr. Thompson of Belfast also re- 

 ceived some of the same species from Aberarder, in Invernesshire. 

 The following characters contrast it with A. arvalis (A. agrestis of the 

 Manual), and may lead to its detection in other localities. A. arvalis* 

 — Body 4 inches : ears projecting out of the fur. A. neglecta. — Bo- 

 dy 5 or h\ inches : fur long, entirely concealing the ears. At Aber- 

 arder " it was taken in traps set for vermin on broken rocky ground at 

 the base of the glens : it was also caught by the dogs, and knocked on 

 the head by the shooters in the heathy tracts up to the summits of the 

 mountains." 



Beaver, Castor Fiber. As the beaver is the next in the order of 

 the Manual, it may be here stated that the remains of this ancient de- 

 nizen of Scotland, were detected by Prof. M'Gillivray in a parcel of 

 bones, sent to him by Admiral Duff, of Drummuir, from a small cave 

 opened in a sandstone quarry on his property of Hopeman, and close 

 by the southern shore of the Moray-frith, and little raised above high- 

 water mark. 



Common hare, Lepus timidus. 



Rabbit, L. cuniculus. It is highly probable that for a length of 

 time some were scattered along the sea-shore, yet rabbits, as far as 

 regards Moray, may be said to have been introduced about forty years 

 ago, and protected at Pitgaveny, whence they have spread over all the 

 country, and in many other instances been protected to the great in- 

 jury and annoyance of the farmer, who cannot, without incurring the 

 displeasure of the proprietor or the jealousy of the sportsman, resort 

 to shooting or hunting, the only means which he has readily at com- 

 mand for defending himself against the ravages of an animal, whose 

 powers of increase are proverbial. Not a few of the land-owners how- 

 ever are so impressed with the necessity of extirpating these vermin, 

 that they had in some measure anticipated the wise resolution of Sir 

 Robert Peel, who, while lately addressing his tenantry, said, " I con- 

 sider it to be the duty of every landlord to make some sacrifice of his 

 personal pleasures for the tenant farmer:" and, " I have no hesitation 

 in saying that I shall be pleased that there is no one single rabbit on 

 the whole of my property. I will do everything I can for their de- 

 struction." The many sandy banks and the general lightness of the 



