THE WILD CAT. 45 



1680, Sir Ewen Cameron, of Locbiel, is said to have 

 killed the last wolf in Scotland ; that in Ireland fell 

 within thirty years after ; but neither the time nor 

 the final extirpator for England is mentioned. The 

 remains of the wolf, in England, have not, so far as 

 we know, been met with, except in the monumental 

 caves to which allusion has been made ; and along 

 with them sleep the remains of other two extinct 

 species, a tiger about the size of the Bengal tiger, and 

 a hyaena about the size, and resembling in the skeleton 

 that of Southern Africa. These two belong to extinct 

 species, and, with the larger bear, appear to have inha- 

 bited the northern parts of the old continent about the 

 same time with the extinct elephant, rhinoceros, and 

 hippopotamus. But though all these are gone, there 

 is still in many parts of the country an animal which is 

 very destructive of birds and small quadrupeds, and 

 which, when it can find no means of retreat, sometimes 

 springs at man. That animal is 



THE WOOD-CAT. 



THE WOOD-CAT, (fells catus sylvestris,} in the 

 largest specimens that have been met with in places 

 where they have abundance of food, and have not 

 been hunted, is, including the tail, about four feet in 

 length, of which that appendage occupies about a foot 

 and a half. It stands about a foot and a half in height, 

 and measures, in a powerful specimen, nearly two feet 

 round the body. The head is larger, the gape wider, 

 the eyes more fiery and sparkling, and the whole air 

 of the animal more agile, bold, and fierce, than that of 



