CHAPTER III 



BRITISH FLESH-EATING LAND MAMMALS 



I. Wild Cat and Fox 



It is in the inaccessible fastnesses of Northern Scotland 

 where the few remaining specimens of Felis Catus are 

 to be found to-day. Wherever the Wild Cat is located 

 it is hunted ruthlessly, and its extermination is the 

 desire of every game-preserver in North Britain. 



The capture of this rarity is duly heralded and 

 recorded in the daily Press, although quite a number 

 of these newspaper notices, when sifted, turn out to be 

 none other than the capture of a domesticated cat, run 

 wild. When a House Cat once takes to hunting in field 

 and wood it seldom returns to its truly domestic state. ; 

 Sooner or later its poaching proclivities land it in sofj^e 

 trap, or the gamekeeper's gun ends its career. Should 

 this roaming House Cat be a replica of the Wild Cat in 

 colour, then there is some slight excuse for many of 

 the reports which are spread via the medium of the 

 daily Press. But Felis Catus can be easily recognized 

 as a distinct species. The House Cat owns a tapering 

 tail, whereas the wild species has a cylindrical appen- 

 dage quite blunt at the end, and distinctly ringed with 

 deep brown and dull white markings. The tip of the 

 tail is also black. 



B.L.M. 17 3 



