176 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



the Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire Hunt is now confined, 16 

 brace were killed in 1898-9, and 13 foxes were accounted for 

 in ten days' cub-hunting in 1900. Coverts come within five 

 miles of the Royal Exchange, Glasgow, and some years ago a 

 fox was chased through Kelvingrove Park and killed in Partick. 

 The species lias been extirpated in Ai'ran and in Bute. In the 

 last-named island it became a general pest, so that in 1731 a 

 fox-hunter was engaged, and cleared them out in two yeai-s. 



Family Mustelidcv. 



14. MusTELA MARTES, L. — Pine-Marten. Both Statistical 

 Accounts give this species as occurring in many parishes. At 

 Hamilton it was " very common " (1841), but this was not 

 generally the case. It is now so rare that a note of all recent 

 records in their sequence may be briefly given. Loch Lomondside 

 was a stronghold; John Colquhoun (who lived at Rossdhu in his 

 boyhood, circa 1820) says they were often trapped at the poultry 

 yard there, but in his Ferce Natnrce (1873) he speaks of the 

 "last Martens," and the only later Loch Lomond record known 

 is of one killed near Tarbet in 1882. Further recent dates 

 are— Culzean (1874); Maybole (1876); Minnock Water (1878-9); 

 Ai-rochar (1882); Kilmory, Lochgilphead (1896); and Poltalloch 

 • — '■' Ai-gyll " — (1896, and another one in the decade from 1890- 

 1900). There is an undated example of the so-called Beech 

 Marten from Garelochhead in Glasgow Museum. 



15. M. PUTORius, L. — Polecat. From the Statistical Accounts 

 this was a much more abundant species than the Pine-Marten, 

 but it is now practically extinct in " Clyde." South Ayrshire 

 seems to have been a stronghold. In 1839 Wm. Thompson (author 

 of the Natural History of Ireland) saw several taken at Ballan- 

 trae; the nest has been known at Knockdolian ; two were 

 trapped on the Lendal about 1860; an occasional one was said 

 to be caught by the keepers at Culzean in 1880; and there is 

 a rejjort of one at Pimuore about 1892. The late Mr. Hemy 

 Grieve recollected seeing Polecats, which were preying on 

 Rabbits, trapped every winter at Braidwood, Lanarkshire, im- 

 mediately subsequent to 1850. The keeper at Bishop Loch, 

 Gartcosh, told me that his predecessor had, in the course of 

 one year, about 1850, trapped seven Polecats amongst roots of 



