106 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 
district, and for many miles beyond it. Its extermination 
throughout Fife and the Lothians, with -the exception of the 
eastern corner of Haddingtonshire, must have taken place a 
long time ago, but how long it is impossible to say, as no 
facts bearing on the point appear to have been placed on 
record. In some of the many suitable localities that readily 
suggest themselves—for instance, on the banks of the Esk, to 
go no farther afield—it is just possible that a few may have 
lingered till the opening years of the present century, but 
this is a mere conjecture on my part. In the cleuchs and 
deans of the Lammermoors, the adjoining coast of Berwick- 
shire, and in the Border counties generally, it seems to have 
maintained its footing longer, and certainly existed in a few 
spots well into this century. The same may be said of the 
hills of Stirlingshire; and among the wilds of south-western 
Perthshire it did not finally disappear till some twenty-five 
or thirty years ago. In 1849 and 1874, Dr James Hardy, of 
Oldcambus, published, in the Proceedings of the Berwickshire 
Naturalists Club (vol. ii, p. 857, and vii, p. 246), some 
valuable observations on the former occurrence of the Wild 
Cat in Berwickshire (and adjoining parts of East Lothian) 
and the other Border counties—a timely step, otherwise even 
the memory of it would, in all probability, have died out 
without notice there as elsewhere in the south-east of Scot- 
land. What Dr Hardy did for the Border counties, Mr 
Harvie-Brown has done for the rest of Scotland in his excel- 
lent article on the species contained in the Zoologist for 1881, 
p. 8. Dr Hardy’s main facts will be best given in his own 
words. In 1849 he wrote as follows:—* The Wild Cat is 
probably by this time considered as an extinct animal in 
Berwickshire. According to my information, it has not been 
noticed in this part of the county for at least forty years. I 
have, however, recently ascertained that one at least yet 
survives, having hitherto been secured amidst the fastnesses 
of our rocky coast from the unremitting persecution waged in 
modern times against our indigenous wild Carnivora. On the 
17th of March 1849, while on a visit to the coast immediately 
to the east of St Helen’s Chapel, I had the pleasure of seeing 
an individual still frequenting the ancient haunts of its race. 
