LAND MAMMALS OF TUE CLYDE FAUNAL AREA. 175 



make reparation. It came to Lis call, and was yoked along 

 with a stag in place of the one devoured, and nine acres were 

 ploughed by this curious team. Sir Walter Scott {Castle 

 Dangerous, Chap. I.) depicts wolves as still maintaining their 

 ground in Douglas Dale in the fourteenth centmy. In the 

 old Statistical Account (1793) the woods of Cathcart are stated 

 to have proved a defence to the Deer, the Boar, and the Wolf, 

 "now no more to be found in this comitry." The story of the 

 last Wolf seen in our area comes from Inveraray (see new 

 Statistical Account, 1845, VII., p. 680). Unlike stories from 

 other Scottish localities, no claim is made that the animal killed 

 was the last British Wolf. The story seems, indeed, to justify 

 the inference that the period of the contemporaneous history of 

 the species had not yet passed away, and this may permit the 

 date of this last " Clyde " Wolf to be approximately fixed as the 

 sixteenth ceutuiy. 



13. Canis vulpes, Z. — Fox. This is still a common species, 

 particularly in Highland localities. Outside the hunting country, 

 now confined to East Renfrewshire and Cunninghame and Kyle, 

 a note of some recent records shows how general the distribu- 

 tion is — Cadzow (many; in 1898 a vixen, with ten yoimg, was 

 killed); Carmichael (abundant; are trapped and despatched to 

 hunting districts); Milton Lockhart; Gartcosh (only occasional 

 now); Eaglesham; Craigallion (rarely occur); Loch Lomondside 

 (few); Carrick Castle; Benmore and Glen Massan (14:9 killed 

 between 1891-7); and Pol talloch— over "Clyde" borders— (212 

 killed in the three years, 1894-5-6). No mammal is more fre- 

 quently mentioned in both the Statistical Accounts, sometimes 

 with interesting details. Such is the Campsie story (1795) of the 

 three different kinds found there, and their primitive hunting 

 on the Fells. Two packs of Foxhomids are at present established 

 in " Clyde " — the Earl of Eglinton's and the Lanarkshire and 

 Renfrewshire. The first^named hunt a large portion of North 

 Ayrshire hard, and yet in 1861, when the Hunt was formed, 

 foxes were so scarce that good sport could not be obtained. 

 A rapid increase must have taken place, as in the season 1867-8, 

 77| brace were killed. This number was not exceeded till 1890-1, 

 when 81 brace were accounted for, and in 1895-6 the number rose 

 to 82 brace. In the limited portion of East Renfrewshire to which 



