326 THE WILD -CAT. 



Except in the depth of a very severe winter, the wild- 

 cat seldom leaves its lone retreat. Nothing comes amiss 

 to it in the shape of prey ; lambs, grouse, hares, are all 

 seized with equal avidity. The female fears nothing 

 when in defence of her young, and will attack even man 

 himself. She generally rears them in rocky clefts and 

 precipices. I saw a couple of young ones that were 

 killed in one of the mountain cairns ; they were nearly 

 as large as a house-cat, although not many weeks old. 

 It was curious to see their short tails, and helpless, 

 unformed kitten look, contrasted with their size. Several 

 attempts were made to shoot the old one, but she was 

 never seen ; probably, upon missing her young, she for- 

 sook the rocks. 



The wild-cat has seldom more than three or four young 

 ones at a time often only two. 



A sad and rather romantic story in connection with the 

 wild-cat occurred about seven years ago, in the neighbour- 

 hood of my residence at that time. The farmer of Ben 

 Ledi had detected some young wild-cats among the massy 

 precipices near the top of that sublime mountain. One 

 morning, after desiring his family to tell his brother (who 

 was expected from Edinburgh on a visit) that he would be 

 back in the afternoon, he left his home and wound his way 

 up to the rocks of the wild-cats' den. Not appearing at 

 nightfall, they became much alarmed, and arranged a party 

 to search the mountain at break of day. As he had said 

 something about destroying the^ wild-cats, they determined 

 first to seek him there. Within a short distance of the 



