POLECAT 51 



recently shown me two stuffed specimens which were cap- 

 tured there about forty-five years ago, and he further assured 

 me that one was seen at a farm close by so recently as 1884. 

 But this is not the latest record, for Mr W. H. Henderson, 

 Linlithgow, writing to Mr Eagle Clarke in November 1890, 

 states that at Kinneil, on the western confines of the county, 

 on the 15th of November 1886 one ran out of a covert 

 into a whinny mound. Mr Henderson had not seen or 

 heard of one before in the county during a residence of 

 thirty-five years. In the east of Stirlingshire Mr Harvie- 

 Brown is of opinion it cannot have been common even 

 sixty to sixty-five years ago. About 1860 several are said 

 to have been seen on Gallowmuir by an old mole- catcher, 

 and Mr James Stirling of Garden heard of one near there 

 in the winter of 1879-80. 



For Perthshire there are many records during the last forty 

 years, but very few of them fall within the scope of this 

 memoir. At Leny, near Callander, one was trapped in 1855, 

 and another in 1858, while on Lord Moray's estate above 

 Doune one was caught about 1850. In Kinross one was seen 

 at Turfhills about 1845, and another on Scotland well Moss 

 about 1860. With regard to Fife, I have often heard my 

 father relate his experiences when a lad in connection with 

 the trapping of Polecats in a poultry-yard near Dysart ; this 

 would be between 1830 and 1835. According to Mr Harvie- 

 Brown's information, none have been seen at Lathirsk since 

 about 1860, and at Lawhill one was obtained in 1866. In 

 1880 one was often seen in the grounds at Falkland, and 

 when chased it took refuge in the thick ivy of the palace 

 walls; the keeper tried to trap it, but without success 

 (" Zoologist," 1881, p. 166). Mr Gilmour of Montrave writes 

 me that he has not heard of a Polecat in Fife since he went 

 to reside there in 1873. 



