MAMMALS. 



45 



the south of Perthshire, whether within the boundaries of Forth or 

 within the boundaries of Tay, no doubt owes its Squirrel population 

 to the introductions of Dalkeith and Minto. These restorations may 

 indeed have aflected their dispersal as far or even farther (?) than 

 Monzie parish. By 1821 they had crossed the Forth river, as above 

 indicated. It remains, however, not perfectly established that these 

 extensions may not have been from the earlier introduction at 

 Dunkeld, though the distance is considerably greater (p. 142). 



We now take up the Dunkeld introduction some time prior to 

 1793. "It was introduced at Dunkeld by the late Duke of Atholl, 

 and has unfortunately done much harm to the singing birds " {New 

 Statistical Account, p. 619). By 1798 they were numerous there. 

 The first ever seen in Breadalbane was in 1828. But it is right to 

 mention that in Campbell's somewhat full list of the animals of 

 Dunkeld in his Journey from Edinburgh to North Britain (vol. i. p. 270) 

 no mention is made of the Squirrel. That was at the date of 181 1. 



The animal was never introduced into Taymouth nor to any part of 

 Breadalbane, and Avas only introduced by the fourth Duke of Atholl at 

 Dunkeld prior to 1793, and by 1798 had become numerous there. The 

 fourth Duke had succeeded to the dukedom in 1774, and he died in 

 1830. The idea cannot be entertained that any remnant of the old occu- 

 pation by Squirrels held out in the old Black Wood of Rannoch, though 

 some of my correspondents seem to think this possible. All available 

 dates of advance make such a belief of very uncertain value. There 

 is no doubt that from Dunkeld they spread southward with much 

 greater facility and rapidity than they did from the later intro- 

 ductions in the south, and the reasons for this departure seem easy 

 of explanation when one realises the bare and inhospitable ground 

 which at that time extended both to the north and to the north-west 

 of, say, Atholl, and when the well-wooded acres and easier openings 

 towards the south and both east and west of that are considered. Here 

 again I may lay some stress upon the possibility that the influence 

 of the Dunkeld introduction may have had more influence than I am 

 quite willing to accord to it, at least in the west. However that may 

 be, there is little doubt that they " burst outwards " both in an 

 easterly and in a westerly direction — into Strathmore by an easterly 

 route, and away into Breadalbane up the Tay valley, etc. But it 

 was not till 1841 that they became abundant at Blair Atholl : while 



