112 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 
Scott, who “exercised” them on the streams of Roxburgh- 
shire. Since the death, about nine years ago, of Mr W. Hill, 
who resided for some time at Kilduff, in East Lothian, where 
he kept a pack, I am not aware that otter-hunting has been 
practised in the district, except when the Dumfriesshire 
hounds pay the Tweed or the Esk a visit, which they have 
done quite recently. Mr Chouler, keeper, Dalkeith Park, has 
the head of the last otter killed by Mr Hill; it was taken in 
the Esk on 10th October 1881. 
MELES TAXUS (Schreb.). BADGER. 
That the Badger, or Brock, as it was called, was a common 
animal throughout the district in olden times goes without 
saying. At the time the “Old Statistical Account” was 
drawn up—the closing years of last century—it was still well 
known as an inhabitant of many localities, though even then 
its numbers were greatly reduced ; and the adverse conditions 
continuing to grow, its extermination in most of its former 
haunts was apparently accomplished by about the middle of 
the present century. Here and there a miserable remnant 
lingered a few years longer, but it is very doubtful if more 
than eight or nine pairs of the original stock now exist 
anywhere in the valley of the Forth, and these mainly in its 
remotest parts among the Perthshire hills, concerning which 
the Rev. P. Graham wrote in his “ Sketches of Perthshire” 
(2nd ed., 1812, p. 216), “ We have hares, badgers, weasels, 
etc., everywhere.” In the valley of the Tweed it maintained 
its footing better, and a few favourite habitats are known to 
be still occupied. 
In the “Old Statistical Account” of Duddingston (vol, 
xviii, p. 374) we read that “a solitary badger at times may 
provoke a stubborn chace and contest,” and it is interesting 
to know that at the present moment a few are to be found 
within a very short distance of that locality, though I fear 
we cannot claim them as the descendants of the sturdy beasts 
just mentioned. I refer to the policies at Edmonstone 
House, where Badgers have taken up their abode for some 
years past, and are known to have bred on several occasions, 
