The Mammalian Fauna of the Edinburgh District. 87 
populous a district becomes, and the more its agricultural 
industries are developed, the greater will be the changes on its 
fauna. Add to these factors the existence for many centuries 
of a large and influential class of landowners holding strong 
views regarding the preservation of game, and it will readily 
be understood that the district around Edinburgh was prob- 
ably the first in Scotland to witness a radical change in 
the character of its mammalian-life within historic times. 
The larger predaceous animals, such as the Wolf and the 
Bear, which carried destruction among the flocks, and even 
threatened the life of the herdsman himself, would be among 
the first to succumb. Many species would be hunted for their 
skins or their flesh; others mainly for sport. The smaller 
Carnivora would receive further attention on account of 
their visits to the poultry-yard, and Hares and Rabbits 
because of injury to the crops. Then came the game 
laws—another interference with the balance of nature— 
accelerating the destruction of the predatory animals, and 
facilitating the increase of the rodents. The inordinate 
increase of the Rabbit led in its turn to a universal system of 
trapping to keep it in check, and from that day the fate of 
most of the remaining terrestrial Carnivora was sealed. 
Boece and Sibbald have put us in possession of much valu- 
able information regarding the fauna of Scotland in the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but as a rule their 
statements are too general to be of direct interest in the 
present inquiry. But from the “Old Statistical Account” of 
the parishes we get some excellent glimpses into the state of 
our fauna a century ago, Even then the predatory animals 
had been in great measure banished to the outlying parishes, 
where, however, they were still not uncommon, as the 
following extracts clearly testify :— 
CAMPSIE (STIRLINGSHIRE).—After mentioning the Badger 
and the Fox and their varieties, the writer of the article con- 
tinues: “There are likewise (on the Campsie Fells) weasels, 
otters, polecats, hedgehogs, wild cats; and, of late, several 
martins have been seen among the rocks. . . . It may be 
observed, that beasts of prey are every day becoming scarcer, 
Till within these two years, we had a regular bred huntsman 
