258 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



In the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg the Wildcat is rather com- 

 mon in the extensive forests of the Ardennes, in the environs of 

 Echternach, Grevenmacher, Manternach, and Fischbach, in the 

 Grunewald, etc. (Ferrant, 1931, p. 61). 



In The Netherlands the species was long since exterminated (Van 

 den Brink, 1931, p. 174). 



In Germany the Wildcat has survived better than the larger 

 carnivores; it occurs in very small numbers in the Bavarian moun- 

 tains, the Black Forest, the Odenwald, and the Riesengebirge. From 

 1850 to 1860 ten animals were killed in Gotha; in 1885-86, two in 

 Silesia; in 1928 an unquestionably pure-blooded male was taken in 

 the Harz Mountains, and in the same year a male in the Kurische 

 Nehrung. (Krumbiegel, 1930, pp. 5-6.) The Wildcat is still regu- 

 larly observed in the Eifel, in the Moselle Mountains, and in the 

 Hunsriick, and there is one from the Pfalz in the Koln Zoological 

 Garden (Hauchecorne, Zeitschr. f. Saugetierk., vol. 9, p. 4, 1934). 

 The animal is almost exterminated in Germany, and is protected 

 as a natural monument (Internationale Gesellschaft zur Erhaltung 

 des Wisents, in litt., October, 1936) . 



In Denmark bones of the Wildcat have been found in kitchen 

 middens, but there is no record within historical times (Winge, 

 1908, p. 116). 



In Switzerland it appears to have been abundant in the sixteenth 

 century and was then the object of much hunting; but it had 

 become rare by the beginning of the nineteenth century. In the 

 1860's some were killed each year in the Alps and the Jura, and a 

 few were still found in the cantons of Bern, Lucerne, Unterwalden, 

 Uri, Schwyz, Glarus, Thiirgau, and Valais. The most were found in 

 the Jura region, from Geneva to Basle. The species seemed to have 

 disappeared from Ticino. (Fatio, 1869, p. 275.) During the last 

 decades it has become very rare and is probably extinct, although 

 it is possible that a few survive in the forests of the Alps and the 

 western Jura (Federal Forest, Game, and Fish Inspection, Bern, 

 in- litt., March, 1937) . 



Wildcats have almost disappeared from northern Italy, and are 

 rare everywhere except in the Maremma, in the southern provinces 

 of Gargano, and in Calabria (Colosi, 1933, p. 56). [The animal of 

 the Tuscan Maremma is regarded by Martorelli (1896, p. 266) as 

 identical with the Sardinian Wildcat (Felis sarda).] The Wildcat 

 still occurs in the Sila Mountains of Calabria (Hecht, 1932, p. 23). 

 According to the Laboratorio di Zoologia Applicata a Caccia (in 

 litt., September, 1936) , the animal is scattered through Sicily as well 

 as the Italian Peninsula ; in legislation it is rated as a harmful species. 



In former times it was probably found everywhere in Austria. 

 It is now exterminated in Burgenland but is said to survive in 



