1 8 THE WILD CAT 



throughout Great Britain. In its immensely 

 powerful muscular development, resembling in 

 this its congeners the great cats of warmer 

 climates, its untameable ferocity and love for the 

 solitude of remote and inaccessible fastnesses, 

 it recalls the days when the Caledonian forests 

 held other and yet more powerful beasts of 

 'ravin.' 



In the latter half of the last century there 

 appeared to be much reason to believe that 

 this species was rapidly approaching extinction. 

 So bloodthirsty and formidable an animal had 

 necessarily many enemies. Young red-deer 

 calves, fawns of roe-deer, hares, rabbits, sickly 

 lambs, game and other birds of every sort and 

 their young even domestic poultry all were 

 laid under tribute as occasion served. The 

 rapid rise and increase of sheep farming through- 

 out the Highlands, and the enhanced values of 

 all sporting property brought about by the 

 greater travelling facilities which served to 

 make the waste places of Scotland more and 

 more the play ground of the wealthy Southron, 

 brought about many a change ; and the wild 

 cat suffered unremitting persecution along with 

 the marten, the polecat, the eagles, the 

 osprey and yet others of our northern fauna 

 some now extinct, some still hovering on the 



