MAMMALS. 



201 



shire by Lady Lovat at Beaufort, which is close to the borders of 

 Ross-shire, in 1844. It is this exact date which gives us such 

 facilities for comparing and estimating the advance from each 

 centre of the two divisions of Squirrels, and which renders 

 it more than probable that the Badenoch and Rothiemurchus 

 centre populated that part of our area south of Loch Ness and 

 the Caledonian Canal, and the Beaufort centre all the northern 

 portion. 



Hepburn records in the Zoologist (1848, p. 2010) that Squirrels 

 were common in many parts of the north of Inverness-shire in 

 1847. In 1848 it was first seen on the north side of Loch Ness, 

 twelve months after it was first met with on the south side on the 

 estate of Aldourie, and in 1850 it had spread over the plantations 

 of Ness Castle. 



Mr. N. Burgess, factor for Glenmoriston, informed Harvie- 

 Brown that the Squirrels came from Glen Urquhart, and were 

 first seen about 1844. This date would, however, appear to be 

 too early, unless the species had survived in some of the large 

 forests of the district, which had only comparatively lately been 

 cut down. They were supposed to have been in the Invergarry 

 "Woods about 1855.^ 



The late Lord Tweedmouth informed us that the species was 

 unknown at Guisachan (Strathglass) previous to 1857, when a few 

 were observed, and were supposed to have come from Beauly. By 

 1862 they had become very numerous and troublesome there, and 

 were destroyed in considerable numbers. Since then they have 

 either left the district or died out, and his Lordship added that 

 he never thought they would last long in the upper part of the 

 strath, as they were but a ' poor, shabby, diminutive lot.' 



Mus sylvaticus, X. Wood Mouse. 



Common along the coast of Sutherland. According to St. John, it is 

 abundant in Morayshire, and that gentleman has given a very 

 good account of its habits in his book on the ' Natural History ' of 

 that county. Though lying dormant during the cold weather, the 

 species has been observed abroad as early as Febniary G, at Inver- 

 garry. 



* Vide Squirrel in Scotland (Proc. Royal Physical Soc. of Edinburgh, vol. v., 1880). 



