MAMMALS. 



43 



the south of Forth and Clyde, from which centres the first Squirrels 

 reached into our presently treated of area. The following account 

 will therefore simply be a short epitome of my previous article, which 

 occupied some 190 pages of the Proc. Royal Fhys. Soc. Edin.^ 



Leaving out all the topographical matter, and all the merely tradi- 

 tional evidence, as well as the geological and heraldic materials, to 

 which I had devoted some eight pages, I pass on to the historical 

 portions which relate to the area ; and I will then give a short resumi 

 of its progress since its introduction at centres south of Tay, and of 

 the results of that at Dunkeld. This, with references to the more 

 complete paper, I think will suffice for the purposes of this volume. 



The Squirrel is referred to in our oldest and most popular Gaelic 

 song, that of the Lament for Blacgregor of lluaro, which may safely be 

 dated as prior to 1650, from evidence already adduced which it 

 seems unnecessary to repeat here. This was long, of course, before 

 any thought had been entertained as regards the planting up of waste 

 places. The country of the Macgregors at that time consisted of a 

 vast territory, and comprehended the districts of Breadalbane, 

 Strath Tay, and Rannoch, all in the bounds of the present county of 

 Perth. Ruaro is situated in Breadalbane; and in Rannoch was, as 

 it still is known by, the famous Coille dubh Baineach, or Black Wood 

 of Rannoch, one of the remnants of the great Caledonian Forest of 

 pines. And these forests stretched in almost uninterrupted miles, 

 and joined with those in the Black Mount Deer-forest and Argyll, 

 where remnants are still (1906) in evidence {op. cit., pp. 48-9). 



For Forfar and Kincardineshire I could find little or nothing of 

 ancient history with regard to the species, nor since I first wrote the 

 article have I obtained any, except the most general data regarding 

 the increase throughout the Vale of Strathmore. 



Coming to the consideration of the restorations in the south of 

 Scotland which afterwards influenced their first and subsequent 

 appearances in Fife and in Perth, I pass on to part iii. of the longer 

 paper (pp. 115 to 165), and then to Clackmannan and the south 

 portion of Perth at p. 138. 



Having been introduced at Dalkeith in Midlothian by Elizabeth, 

 Duchess of Buccleuch, "not prior to 1767," and "probably between 

 that date and 1772 or 1773"; and having made its way from that 

 centre, and also in all probability, in part at least, from the later 



' The History of the Squirrel in Great Britain (Edinburgh). It was also separately 

 printed by Messrs. Macfarlane and Erskine, Edinburgh, being a reprint from the Proc. 

 Royal Phys. Soc. Edin., 1880, vol. v. pp. 3.33-48, vol. vi. pp. 31-183. 



