Fauna.—Deer-forests cover over 21 million acres. The red deer in Scotland is confined to the Highlands, but the roe-deer, living in woods, is found also in the southern Uplands in some parts where tree plantation has been carried out. Other kinds of the larger mammals, once abundant, are now extinct; the last wolf is said to have been killed in 1680. The wild cat survives in the Highlands; as also the otter, polecat, ermine and pine marten. Rabbits and hares are abundant, including both the common and the mountain hare, of which the last assumes a white coat in winter. Grouse moors occupy an extensive area ; ptar migan and blackcock, among other game birds, are found in many districts, and the capercailzie has been reintroduced. The golden eagle and the white-tailed eagle haunt only the remoter moun tainous districts; other large birds of prey, such as the osprey and kite, are also becoming scarce. The islands and sea-cliffs, and some of the inland lochs, are frequented by a great variety of water-fowl. The Scottish lochs are noted in particular for salmon and trout ; of this family there are several varieties, one of which, the Loch Leven trout, is peculiar to the loch of that name. Some arctic crustacea occur among the loch fauna, and a marine crustacean (mysis) appears to have migrated from the coastal waters to certain freshwater lochs not far from sea level.
At the end of the r 5th century it is conservatively estimated that the population of Scotland did not exceed 5oo,000—Edin burgh having about 20,000 inhabitants, Perth about 9,000, and Aberdeen, Dundee and St. Andrews about 4,000 each. By the Union with England (1707) the population is supposed to have grown to r,000,000. In 1755, according to the returns furnished by the clergy to the Rev. Dr. Alexander Webster (1707-1784), minister of the Tron kirk, Edinburgh—who had been commis sioned by Lord President Dundas to prepare a census for Government—it was 1,265,380.
At the first Government census (r 80r) it had reached 1,608,42o. The increase at succeeding decades has been continuous though fluctuating in amount. After 1841, however, the population in several Highland shires—in which the clearance of crofters to make way for deer was one of the most strongly-felt grievances among the Celtic part of the people—in the islands, and in some of the southern counties, diminished. In 1931 the population amounted to (females 2,516,687) showing a decrease of o•8% on the 1921 figures, the first decrease to be recorded.
In 1921 there were 162 persons to each square mile, and 3.9 acres (excluding inland waters, tidal rivers and foreshore) to each person. The distribution of population is illustrated in the above table, in which is given the names and areas of the counties.
In the northern, north-western, north-eastern and southern divisions the population declined during the decade, 18 counties being thus affected. It will thus be seen that the far north and
far south alike decreased in population, the decline being largely due to physical conditions, though it need not be supposed that the limit of population was reached in either area. The most sparsely inhabited county was Sutherland, the most densely Lanark. The counties in which there was the largest increase in the decennial period—Ayr, Fife, East Lothian, Argyll and r others—belonged largely to the central plain, or Lowlands, in which, broadly stated, industries and manufactures, trade, com merce and agriculture, and educational facilities have attained their highest development. Actually by far the largest increase (35%) was in Bute, but this was only an apparent and not a real increase, because of the number of summer visitors at the time the census was taken.
In every county the population increased between 1801 and 1841. The urban population (i.e., that of burghs and special light ing and scavenging districts with populations of i,000 and over) was 77.3% in 1921, as compared with 75.4% in 1911. Urbani zation is highest in the lowland industrial areas, Lanark, Mid lothian and Renfrew having an urban population of over 90%. The highest proportion of rural population is found in Ross and Cromarty (83.7), Orkney (77.8), Berwick (76.4), and Shetland (74.8). The population of the 176 inhabited islands is 154,624.
The burghs in which the largest proportion of Scottish-born persons lived (over 93%) in 1921 were Kirkcaldy, Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, and Kilmarnock. The largest proportion of English-born were found in Dunfermline and Edinburgh, and Irish-born, in Port Glasgow, Greenock and Coatbridge. There were 20,223 foreigners. In 1926 there were 102,449 births and 63,78o deaths. The birth-rate, which was 29.5 per thousand of the population in 1901, has fallen every year since, with the excep tion of 1920 and 1921, when it rose to 28 and 25 per thousand. In 1926 it was 20-9. The death-rate also fell from 190i, when it was 17.8 per thousand, until in 1918 it was 16 and in 1926 13.00, the latter being the lowest figure on record, with the exception of that for 1923 (12.9). The marriage rate has remained roughly stationary at 6 or 7 per thousand, except in 1919 and 1920, when it rose to 9. The mortality of infants under one year of age had fallen to 83 per thousand births by 1926. Illegitimate births were 6.8 per hundred. These figures may be compared with those of 1855, when the birth-rate was 31 per thousand of the population, the death-rate 20.8, the marriage-rate 6.6, illegitimacy 7.8, and infant mortality 125 (per thousand births).