76 ANIMAL LIFE OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



has tired of the soft indoor life and become feral. Such cats 

 are a terror to the gamekeeper on account of their destruction 

 of young pheasants, hares and rabbits, and the tails of many of 

 them ornament his gibbets. 



To have even a slight chance of seeing the real British Wild 

 Cat to-day, we must seek it in North Wales, or preferably the 

 north or north-west of Scotland, its present restricted area in 

 that country having as its eastern boundary the Caledonian 

 Canal. It inhabits the most lonely and inaccessible mountain 

 sides, hiding during the day in some rocky fastness, prowling 

 far and wide at night in search of prey. It is of a general 

 yellowish grey colour, but individuals differ in their dark brown 

 markings, some having vertical stripes running down the sides 

 from a black longitudinal line down the middle of the back ; in 

 others these are broken up to form spots. It has a squarish 

 thick head and body, the latter longer than in the Domestic 

 Cat ; but the thick bushy tail is relatively shorter, ringed and 

 ending in a long black brush. The limbs, too, are longer than 

 those of the tame cat, so that it stands higher. A pair of dark 

 stripes extend from the eyes and over the head to behind the 

 ears. The fur is long, soft and thick. The pads of the toes are 

 not quite black. The average length is about two feet nine 

 inches, of which the tail accounts for eleven inches ; but there 

 is a record of a Scottish example measuring three feet nine 

 inches in all. 



Pennant (1776) says: "This animal may be called the 

 British tiger ; it is the fiercest, and most destructive beast we 

 have ; making dreadful havoke among our poultry, lambs and 

 kids." C. St. John, nearer to our own time (1845), sa )' s its 

 strength and ferocity when hard pressed are perfectly astonish- 

 ing. Fully acquainted as he was with the wild life of the more 

 remote parts of Scotland, he adds : " I have heard their wild 

 and unearthly cry echo far in the quiet night as they answer and 

 call to each other. I do not know a more harsh and unpleasant 



