BRITISH MAMMALS 



together with climatic conditions, has to be attributed 

 the changes which our mammaHan fauna in particular 

 has undergone. 



In the far north, where the extensive forests and 

 untenanted mountainous districts still remain very much 

 as they were many centuries ago, the Wild Cat still 

 survives. There, amidst the eternal fastnesses, it pursues 

 its calHng, hunting birds, mice and other creatures. 

 It selects a hollow tree, rock crevice, or dense under- 

 growth as its lair, producing a litter of five or six young 

 soon after Summer has set in. The female shows great 

 solicitude for her young, and attends to their wants until 

 such time as they are able to hunt for themselves. 



To encounter a Wild Cat in its native fastness is no 

 easy matter, especially if the animal is wounded. It is 

 full of courage and savagery, and those who have had 

 experience of a domestic Cat caught in a woodland trap 

 will be able to form some idea of the ferocity of Felis 

 catus when at bay. In the march of civilisation this 

 bold, handsome carnivore has had to go, and, although 

 we may still claim it as a wild inhabitant of the northern 

 portions of our island home, it merely exists as a remnant 

 of its former self, and its days, like those of the Pine 

 Marten, are probably numbered. 



Fox. — It is probable that but for the protection 



afforded to the Fox because of its popularity for hunting 



purposes, it would long since have joined its cousin, the 



Wolf, as an extinct British species. The last Wolf seems 



to have been secured during the eighteenth century, 

 96 



