I2 4 DELIBERATE DESTRUCTION OF ANIMAL LIFE 



of Langwell and Sandside, 546 were killed in seven years 

 from 1819 to 1826, and on the Duchess of Sutherland's 

 estates 193 were killed in the three years from March 1831. 

 to March 1834. 



Other inducements beside the protection of stock, have 

 helped to bring Reynard to book, for the value of its skin, 

 especially in the older days, was no mean consideration 

 (see p. 1 68) and at the present day live Foxes are exported 

 from certain districts of .Scotland to stock the coverts of 

 English hunting counties. Yet in spite of all, notwithstanding 

 that his numbers have been sadly diminished, the Fox still 

 holds his ground, and there are few counties which cannot 

 boast many occupied earths. From the islands, however, it 

 has been banished, and none now exists on Mull, where 

 tradition relates that it survived before the middle of the 

 eighteenth century. 



THE WILD CAT 



In the struggle against the wiles of man, the Wild Cat 

 (Felis silvesfris) (Fig. 30, p. 125) has been less fortunate 

 than the Fox. At a time not very remote it too roamed 

 over the whole of the mainland, and in earlier days even 

 found a home on the islands, as in Bute, whence I have 

 identified bones from the prehistoric settlement of Dunagoil. 

 The increasing cultivation of land and need for more strin- 

 gent protection of flocks, as well as the growing regard paid 

 to the preservation of the smaller game of the countryside, 

 were certain to tell heavily upon so fierce and persistent a 

 marauder as the Wild Cat. From England man has driven 

 it, as from the Lowlands of Scotland, and even in the High- 

 lands its range is now severely restricted. Thanks to the 

 labours of Dr Harvie- Brown, the steps of its decadence in 

 Scotland can be traced with some precision. 



From the great industrial areas and centres of population 

 it first disappeared. No tradition remains of its presence in 

 the busy midland valleys between the Firths of Forth and 

 Clyde: there it has been long extinct. Yet in the wilder 

 lands on either side, it held its ground till recent times. In 

 the counties marching with the Solway and with the English 

 border, it was common at the commencement of the nine- 

 teenth century, but about 1830 it had gone from the former, 



