MAMMALS. 



167 



an old wall near Elgin Cathedral, one was found.' He speaks of it 

 also as 'occasionally met with in Strathspey.' To this, in an 

 edition printed in 1889, at Elgin (q.v. p. 12), 'with appendices to 

 the present date,' he adds the note : ' Cawdor, aud. Mr. Stables, who 

 was factor there — and : ' the Hedgehog is by no means so rare 

 on the east side as it is on the west side of the Spey (1855), getting 

 more abundant in Moray ' ; and in 1845, the Nezo Statistical Accmnt 

 says : — * The Hedgehog (and Squirrel) have not yet reached the 

 district of Kiltarlity' {loc. cit. vol. xiv. p. 493).^ 



On the banks of the Deveron, on the other side of the water- 

 shed of Spey, as we are informed by Mr.W. A. Brown, ^ it has been 

 known for quite forty years, say since 1850, and in or about 1852 

 it was well known around Carr Bridge on the river Dulnan to 

 Mr. W. Robertson, the old and well-known Spey salmon-fisher.^ 



Lately Edward spoke of it as follows : ' Ever since I remem- 

 ber, " Hedgey " was altogether unknown, or at least very seldom 

 seen, in Banffshire. Now he is plentiful, and seems to be still on 

 the increase.' 



Of its present distribution, it may be said to be tolerably 

 abundant and general throughout all the districts of Strathspey 

 and Speyside, Deveron, aud south of the Moray Firth, but still to 

 be somewhat more abundant on the right or east bank of the Spey, 

 though not uncommonly met with on Elchies and other parts of 

 the lands on the west side, to which it has no doubt gained access 

 by road and railway bridges at Carron and Craigellachie. The 

 direction of dispersal has almost without doubt been from southerly 

 directions, assisted in comparatively recent vear? bv tlie erection 

 of bridges over the Spey. 



Mr. R. Thomson speaks of tlie Hedgehog a.s ' one ut the best 

 known of our nocturnal animals. We have often,' he continues, 

 * met with it in the woods after sundown, searching intently for 

 its supper during the dim twilight. While thus engaged, it 



^ But in the New Statistical Account no fewer than ten parishes are named as con- 

 taining the Hedgehog, viz., St. Fergus, Fyvie, Alford, Strathdou, Chapel of Garioch. 

 Birse, Logie-Buchan, Drunioak, Lumphauan, and Leochell-Cushnie, all in the faunal 

 area of 'Dec.' We mention this as a .iid'.-li'jht, showing a probable line of their 

 advance from south-eastward. 



' W. A. Brown, long resident gantekeeper at T\'>tlii» iiiay. 



» Still resident at Carr Bridge, 1892. 



