THE CARNIVOEA. 47 



Harvie-Brown ^ points out, between this creature and the 

 marten. The same writer refers to its absence from the 

 Hebrides. Not so many years ago the wild cat survived 

 farther south. Roebuck^ gives the year 1840 as the date 

 of its extinction in Yorkshire. Major Fisher -^ saw one in 

 very bad condition in North Wales. I recollect Sir Her- 

 bert Maxwell telling me of one said to have been caught 

 less than fifty years ago in Oxfordshire, and now in a glass 

 case at Middleton. He has not, however, been able to 

 verify the date of its capture. From the Lake district it 

 seems to have vanished half a century ago ; and as it is 

 undoubtedly a very great nuisance to the farmer and 

 gamekeeper, it would not be surprising if its extinction in 

 these islands were to follow closely on the dawn of the 

 twentieth century. Such folks have no time to devote 

 much thought to the less practical consideration of the 

 impoverishment of our mammalian fauna, nor, it must 

 be confessed, is there much to be said on behalf of this 

 fierce and voracious beast. It is almost a blessing that 

 it is so easily trapped, showing very little suspicion of 

 any baited fall, a little valerian root being, according to 

 Speedy, sufficient to attract any game-hunting cat. The 

 wild cat, it is now generally agreed, never occurred in 

 Ireland. 



The young, five or six in number, are born 

 BrGGtlin"'. 



°" in early summer, the lair being either in a 



hollow tree or in some deserted badger-earth. 



Seen in the museum — and few have nowadays any op- 

 portunity of seeing it elsewhere — it is a striking animal, 

 bearing a strong resemblance to the lynx, 

 ppearance, rpj^^, body gives the impression of combined 



strength and immense activity, and is well 

 balanced by the bushy tail, which is proportionately far 

 shorter than in the domestic cat. In colour it seems from 

 all accounts to vary considerably, the type being yellow 



1 Fauna of Argyll, p. 11. '- Yorkshire Vertebrata, p. 5. 



3 Outdoor Life in England, p. 4. 



