IN THE NORTHERN COUNTIES 23 



impossible to decide positively ; but the striped 

 form so clearly resembles both the African and 

 European wild cat that in all probability these 

 are, in greater or lesser proportion, the pro- 

 genitors of this form ; while the blotched type 

 cannot be so accounted for ; and its origin, for 

 the present at least, must remain undecided. 



To return to the wild cat in our own land, 

 we have proof of its former wider distribution 

 in the number of place-names associated with 

 it, not in the Highlands only but also in the 

 Lowlands. In a Fauna of Scotland, 1880, by 

 the late E. R. Alston, F.L.S., it is stated: 

 4 Once generally distributed all over the main- 

 land, the Wild Cat has been totally extirpated 

 in the Lowlands and in many parts of the 

 Highlands. It is still to be found, however, in 

 the wilder districts of most of the Northern 

 Counties, especially in the deer-forests, where 

 it is left comparatively undisturbed. Till of 

 late years its Southern outpost was the moun- 

 tainous country around Loch Lomond, whence 

 there are specimens in the Glasgow University 

 Museum, but it is now extinct in that neighbour- 

 hood, and I believe that none now exist south 

 of the Northern districts of Argyll and Perth- 

 shire. There appears to be no evidence that 

 the wild cat was ever found in any of the 



