50 
Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinhurgli. [sess. 
On the Early History of some Scottish Mammals and 
Birds. By Professor Duns, D.D. 
(Read February 20, 1893.) 
{Abstract.) ^ 
This histgry presents many points of interest to the naturalist, 
the antiquary, and the historian. The paper is a plea for a wider, 
yet reliable, record and characterisation of these mammals and birds 
than we have at present. All zoologists are familiar with them, but 
the information consists mainly of details which none but specialists 
can appreciate. General readers look for more science, suggestive of 
habits and habitats. They wish to know something of the number 
of species recorded at different periods, their gradational relations, 
their geographical distribution, and the opinions of early observers 
as to them. Do their remains throw any light on their physical 
environments, or on man’s condition at the time, as in touch with 
them, as influenced by them — the living among the living^ In 
tracing the history of beast or bird, we meet with many collateral 
subjects of importance — such, for example, as climatal changes, 
alterations of surface over wide areas, links dropped out of grada- 
tional rank, and thereby the realisation of new conditions of 
existence by the removal of one old species or the introduction of 
one new species. Moreover, assuming the ever-active presence and 
power of innate elements of variation, we are concerned to know in 
what direction they have worked in the course of three or four 
centuries. Has the variation been only in form, in size, or colour ? 
Or has it ever been, in the essentially species-element, “ reproduc- 
tion ” ? In seeking an answer to these queries, reference was made 
to stratigraphical and biotic methods of the classification of Surface 
Deposits, and to the importance of both when dealing with organic 
remains in superficial strata. When this paper was promised, it was 
intended to put on record notes on the remains of fifteen species of 
mammals and four species of birds, touching which we have early 
historic notices, and to exhibit a number of specimens in this connec- 
