2^6 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



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are two paragraphs relating to "wild cattle," which, however, have 

 been " extirpated at the places we have mentioned," i.e. Hamilton, 

 Drumlanrig, and Cumbernauld. This agrees with the former state- 

 ment, but it is curious to find that in ' Peter's Letters to his Kins- 

 folk,' by J. G. Lockhart, published in " Blackwood's Magazine" in 

 the same year (1819), there is a lively description of the Cadzow 

 cattle from personal observation. " They are white or cream- 

 coloured all over, but have their hoofs and horns and eyes of the 

 most dazzling jet. The fierceness of the race, however, would seem 

 to have entirely evaporated in the progress of so many ages, for the 

 whole herd lay perfectly quiet while our grave trio passed through 

 the midst of them." In "Castle Dangerous" (1831) Scott again 

 refers to the cattle in Note B, where he states that they "were, in 

 the memory of man, still preserved in three places in Scotland 

 namely, Drumlanrig, Cumbernauld, and the upper park at Hamilton 

 Palace, at all of which places, except the last, I believe, they have 

 now been destroyed on account of their ferocity." This statement 

 traverses what he had written previously. He had apparently 

 learned, possibly through Lockhart, of the re-introduction at Cadzow, 

 but it is unfortunate that he throws no light on the source of the 

 restored herd, and this remains still a matter of conjecture. JOHN 

 PATERSON, Glasgow. 



Polecat in Elginshire. The Polecat is not quite extinct in 

 Elginshire yet. A large male was killed at Whitewreath, about four 

 miles south of Elgin, last January. Few of the young people have 

 ever seen a Polecat alive in this district, and I only know of three 

 or four having been trapped here during the past thirty years. 

 WILLIAM TAYLOR, Lhanbryde. 



Lesser Rorqual in the Moray Firth. -- A beautiful male 

 Lesser Rorqual (Balcsnoptera rostratd] was captured in a fishing- 

 net off Portknockie on the i4th of August last. It was towed into 

 Portknockie Harbour, where it lay for some days. The baleen 

 was beautiful creamy white, but the boys had been helping them- 

 selves to specimens before I saw it. The bands down the throat 

 and chest were pure white, with slate-coloured grooves between. 

 The white patch on the outside of the arm was well marked. The 

 body was nearly black on the dorsal surface. I took the following 

 measurements: Total length, 24^- feet; greatest girth, 13 feet; 

 from snout to blowhole, 3^ feet ; height of dorsal fin, i foot 

 2 inches ; length of pectoral fin, 3 feet 9 inches ; breadth of tail, 

 6 feet 9 inches. WILLIAM TAYLOR, Lhanbryde. 



The Grampus in Clyde. On Sunday, 5th June, this year, while 

 walking up the west side of the island of Bute, from Etterick Bay to 

 Kilmichael, with Mr. John Robertson, that gentleman drew my 

 attention to two whales proceeding down the Kyles. They might 

 be a mile from the shore, probably less, but with our binoculars 



