WILD CAT 35 



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. 

 ... I first remarked it on the top of one of these precipices 

 named the Swallow Craig. . . . This was likewise the 

 spot where, more than forty years ago, my father used to see 

 them when they were still numerous. . . . The dark 

 caverns, or ' coves,' of which there are several in the range 

 of cliffs from this to Fast Castle, had the repute in former 

 times of being tenanted by these animals. ... By their 

 occasional depredations in the hen-roost they were known as 

 far westward as Dunglass, perhaps finding a retreat in the 

 deep and wooded glen. Fifty years ago, they were exceed- 

 ingly numerous in the woods above the Pease Bridge." The 

 precipitous sea-banks between Gunsgreen and Fairneyside 

 are mentioned as another haunt, and it is further stated that 

 below a place named Blaikie, " there are several holes in the 



