3482 Thk Zoologist — April, 1873. 



the glen of Ilolrae, greatly to his discomfiture, he never having 

 before seen an example of "the queer wee beastie": the tale shows 

 that the scfuirrel was unfamiliar in that region. 



I was rather surprised and very much pleased to find a word in 

 favour of the otter: it is so common to hear it condemned by any 

 resident in the country, in the same unsparing manner as the diurnal 

 and nocturnal mousers, the kestrel and the owl, that one seems 

 hardly to believe one's eyes when a passage like this meets the 

 astonished gaze : — 



•' The otter (Lutra vulgaris) still survives, though gradually yielding to 

 persecution. I have long felt satisfied that the depredations of this beautiful 

 and graceful quadruped are far less serious than is generally supposed. In 

 the smaller streams and burns they certainly consume a number of trout ; 

 but, as a set off to this, they kill quantities of pike, wherever that voracious 

 fish has contrived to establish itself. As to salmon, they rarely capture one 

 of considerable size, while the arch-enemy of the species, the seal {Phoca 

 vitulina), has become quite a rare visitor to the mouth of the Spey. I have 

 seen a greater number in one day off the Moy, in Killalla Bay, than could 

 probably now be observed during an entire season on the southern side of 

 the Moray Firth."— P. 56. 



I sincerely regret that I am unable to corroborate this view of 

 the otter's conduct : having seen and heard much of otters in 

 Herefordshire, I have failed to find evidence of its pike-destroying 

 propensities, while its taste for the delicate grayling, the beautiful 

 trout, and the coarse roach and dace, is established on the clearest 

 evidence. 



It would have been pleasant to have learned more particulars of 

 that reputed Scottish mammal, the wild cat ; but of this mythical 

 creature Mr. Knox saw but one, and that in a " large iron cage." 

 There is no British mammal, or reputed British mammal, of whose 

 character, locality, and even^existence, we are so totally ignorant as 

 the wild cat; and it is fair to assume that Mr. Knox would 

 have gladly imparted any information he possessed respecting it. 

 Dr. Gordon includes it in his "Fauna of Moray" (Zool. 423), and 

 gives the following meagre information respecting it: — 



" Wild Cat. — Found only in the largest forests and among the subalpine 

 rocks and valleys of the province. One killed above Cawdor Castle measured 

 from the nose to the tip of the tail three feet nine inches, of which the tail 

 itself occupied fifteen inches." 



