The Mammalian Fauna of the Edinburgh District. 113 
Unfortunately, the gamekeeper seems to think they are 
already too numerous, and has taken to killing them. In 
May of this year (1891) I saw two of them in the taxider- 
mist’s hands. It is supposed that this colony originated with 
a female which escaped from the stables at The Inch, where 
Mr T. Speedy has kept several in confinement. The Badger 
seen in a field near Greenend in June 1883, and mentioned 
in the Scotsman at the time, was doubtless the same animal. 
Former haunts on both branches of the Esk have been 
placed on record. In 1808 Neill included it in his list of 
animals inhabiting the grounds of Newhall, on the North Esk; 
and the writer of the “ New Statistical Account” of the parish 
of Borthwick, on the southern branch, informs us that while 
he was preparing that account (in 1839) there was a litter of 
young Badgers in the Chirmat, a piece of wooded hill opposite 
the windows of the manse. About Temple and Rosebery, 
in the same neighbourhood, it existed until quite recently, 
and the last may not even yet have been destroyed there. 
One which was taken alive near Temple was advertised for 
sale in the Seotsman of 25th April 1880; and a little farther 
east, on the confines of Midlothian and Haddingtonshire, 
another was trapped some sixteen or seventeen years ago at 
Blackshiels by Mr W. Wood, gamekeeper, who has often 
related the circumstance to me. 
Almost every estate in East Lothian appears to have 
contained Badgers at one time. Mr Saunders, gamekeeper, 
Gosford, informs me that it is now some forty-five years since 
the last was killed there, and that about the same time they 
were on the adjoining properties of Gilmerton and Luffness, on 
the latter of which the last succumbed about thirty-seven years 
ago. From Mr R. Inglis, keeper, Tyninghame, I learn that 
about forty years ago he knew of two litters on that estate 
in each of two or three successive seasons, “but they were 
never allowed to live long.” The last was killed there 
twenty-one years ago, and he is not aware of any having 
been seen since. There are places, however, in Binning 
Wood, where they may well have lingered some years longer. 
In May 1881 a hole once frequented by them in the grounds 
at Belton was pointed out to the members of the Berwick- 
VOL. XI. H 
