(Authors are responsible for nomenclature used.) 
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The Scottish Naturalist 
Nos. 113 AND 114. ] 1921 [ May-June. 
Rit EeetiR MINA TION OF THE OLD 
~ SCOTTISH FAUNA 
DURING the war years the rarer members of the Scottish 
fauna, freed from the ban of destruction, multiplied as they 
had not done in the memory of man; but the respite is over, 
and now the game of extermination goes merrily on. We 
would draw attention in particular to the cases of three 
Scottish mammals, interesting representatives of the old 
fauna, which not much more than a hundred years ago were 
to be found throughout the length of the land, but whose 
doom is sealed if immediate steps be not taken to protect 
their scattered relics—the Wild Cat, the Pine Marten, and 
the Polecat. 
Reports received from various sources, and items of 
information gathered from contemporary journals show that 
destruction on no ordinary scale is taking place. In the 
Badenoch district of Inverness-shire, a whole family of Wild 
‘Cats, male, female, and young, has been wiped out; at 
Glenmoriston a pair trapped; and in Wester Ross three 
keepers killed, in a limited area, respectively two, three, and 
eight! Pine Martens have fared no better. In Wester Ross 
one was trapped, where for thirty years they had been 
unknown; in Caithness, at Oldany, four were killed in three 
weeks in December; in two taxidermists’ shops in a small 
town seven recent skins have been seen at one time; and 
113 AND II4 I 
