198 



MAMMALS. 



1892, says from personal experience: — * There is a great increase 

 (of Eoe) within the last thirty years in Abernethy, ever since the 

 sheep were excluded and the ground put under deer. Old people 

 have told me they are not so large as formerly ; this is owing to 

 the females frequently having twins, which are more dwarfish than 

 when there is a single calf.' 



Order RODENTIA. 

 Sub-order SIMPLIGIDENTATA. 

 Section SCIUKOMORPHA. 

 Family SCIURIDJE. 



Sciurus vulgaris, L. Squirrel. 



To go minutely into the whole history of the Squirrel in this area 

 would be too long a treatment for our present work; besides which, 

 this has already been done by Harvie-Brown in a paper called 

 ' History of the Squirrel in Great Britain,' which was printed in 

 the Proceedings of the Boyal Physical Society of Edinburgh^ vol. v. , 

 1880, and reprinted in 1881. 



We have given a short resum6 of this article, with such inter- 

 esting additions as we have been able to collect since the original 

 was written. 



At the present time the Squirrel is an abundant species 

 throughout all our area, with perhaps the exception of the more 

 western and less thickly planted portions of Sutherland and Ross- 

 shire. 



In Sutherland, although common in Sir Robert Gordon's time 

 (1630), the species became extinct, probably with the extinction 

 of the old fir forests, and again became an inhabitant of that 

 county about 1859, when it was first seen at Clashmore, as we are 

 informed by Sheriff Mackenzie, who believes that this new intro- 

 duction took place by way of the bridge across the Kyle of Suther- 

 land at Bonar Bridge. Squirrels became still more plentiful after 

 the railway bridge at Invershin was completed, and are now abun- 

 dant all through the fir plantations of the east, and have even 

 been seen at the small isolated fir wood at Kintradwell, to reach 



