52 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. 



Recurrence of the Wild Cat in Ardnamurehan. Within the 

 recollection of old folk still living, Wild Cats (Felis catus) were 

 common in Ardnamurehan; but by 1879, when my more close 

 acquaintance with the district began, they "were extinct, the last 

 individual having been killed about 1876 by a gamekeeper who has 

 now retired from active work. It was therefore with an interest 

 not unmingled with doubt that I heard from my keeper in the end 

 of October last (1894) that he had killed one, but when it was sent 

 on to me it proved to be an undoubted female Wild Cat which had 

 been nursing young this season. It weighed 7 Ibs. 5 ozs. Two 

 days later came news of the capture and death of the male at the 

 hands of one of the rabbit -trappers ; and since then two kittens, 

 one-third grown, have met their end also in the rabbit-traps. The 

 capture of these Wild Cats led me to inquire whether any had been 

 seen on the eastern beat of the same estate ; and my good friend 

 Mr. Simon Ross, gamekeeper at Glenborrodale Castle, writes me 

 thus : " With regard to the two Wild Cats trapped in Corrievoulin, 

 I think they went down there some time about April or May last. 

 I had them on Glenbeg early in April, and was after one of them. 

 The Glenbeg shepherd's dogs chased one of them from the middle 

 of the glen till they lost it in Glenmore Burn. ... I think they 

 came down Loch Shiel way from the upper country. ... In 1892 

 the Kintra keeper observed a good many footmarks, which he 

 thought were made either by a small fox or a large cat ; and in 

 February that year he got a very large cat high up the 

 hill on Acharacle, which proved to be a very large Mountain Cat. 

 Nothing more was heard of any till last year, when four were caught 

 at different times on Gorsten ground, and other two on Laga, in 

 traps when they had them set for rabbits. Three of these were 

 young ones, and the other three old cats. One of them which I 

 weighed was 1 1 Ibs. The two got at Laga were males, but I cannot 

 say as to the other four." I am very sorry for the total destruction 

 of the family on my beat. For, believing that an unlimited rabbit 

 supply would keep them from harming almost aught else, I would 

 gladly give the race shelter till they required diminution. But the 

 imperative necessity of rabbit-trapping, as carried on by both shoot- 

 ing and pastoral tenants, gives them but a poor chance of survivance. 

 It looks, however, as if in some happy central deer-forest home the 

 species is so far prosperous as to be able to give off emigrants at 

 times. A. BURN MURDOCH, Edinburgh. 



Lesser Rorqual in Scottish Waters. A male Lesser Rorqual 

 (Balcenoptera rostrata) got entangled in the swing rope of a herring- 

 boat this summer, was killed, brought on shore, and landed on the 



