90 
MAMMALS. 
Sutherland to the year 1630, where it is included in a list of 
animals found in tlie county), and became extinct. The 
latest record we have of the squirrel occurring anywhere in 
the north of Scotland which could possibly have belonged 
to the aboriginal stock, dates 1792 {Old Statistical Account 
of Scotland, 1792, vol. iii. p. 514), which record is repeated 
woixl for word in the New Statistical Account, dating 1842. 
It most probably became extinct after or during the severe 
winter of 1795, and the subsequent record was merely a 
statement not brought up to date. As regards its reappear- 
ance, we quote directly from Harvie-Brown's Essay on " The 
Squirrel in Scotland," as in that essay the subject, we 
believe, is pretty well thrashed out. 
" The squirrel reappeared in the county of Sutherland in 
1859 at Clashmore, on the authority of Mr. Thomas Mac- 
kenzie (vide Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasg., vol. iii. p. 229; 
also Scottish Naturalist, vol. i. p. 82), and he believes that 
the first squirrels entered the county across Bonar Bridge. 
It was not, however, until after the railway bridge was 
built at Invershin, in 1869, that squirrels became plentiful 
in the east of Sutherland." Since then they have increased 
largely, and are now firmly established in the east of the 
county. From Dunrobin we have the following returns 
of squirrels killed between 1873 and 1880, which admir- 
ably shows the rapidity with which the species increases. 
In 1873, 2 were killed ; in 1875, 75 ; in 1876, 47 ; in 1877, 
12; in 1878, 284; in 1879, 332; in 1880, 190;— total in 
seven years, 942. 
Not known in Caithness, unless it has lately strayed or 
extended its range into Berriedale.^ 
1 See " The History of the Squirrel in Great Britain," Pi-oc. Royal Physical 
Soc. of Edinburgh, 1880-81, p. 182 : Sutherland and Caithness. 
