218 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
OCCASIONAL NOTES. 
Witp Cat iw tran West Hicutanps.—The Wild Cat, Felis catus, 
Linn., though yearly becoming rarer and rarer, is not extinct, I am glad to 
say, in Loch Aber. It is also occasionally met with in the districts of 
Arisaig, Moidart, Ardnamurchan [the last killed in Ardnamurchan was in 
June, 1872], Sunart, Ardgower, and Morven. It has also been met with 
in recent years in some parts of North Argyleshire, such as Upper Glen- 
creran and Glen Duror. It is usually encountered along the face of such 
rocky steeps as rise above broad beltings of natural woods, such as hazel, 
birch, &c. It is necessary to observe, however, that with keepers, fox- 
hunters, and others, all cats killed at a distance from human dwellings are 
called Wild Cats, though they may only be, as they frequently are, domestic 
cats that have for some reason taken to the woods and rocks, and become 
in a manner savage enough and wild enough, though not necessarily Wild 
Cats in the zoological sense of the term. Mr. Harvie Brown believes that, 
generally speaking, highland fox-hunters, gamekeepers, foresters, and 
shepherds, are perfectly conversant with the true Wild Cat; and few, 
except such as have never seen one alive, would commit the error of 
mistaking the one for the other. He has great trust in the reports 
regarding matters of local Natural History, because he has had considerable 
experience of their practical knowledge of the subject. Many of the 
highland keepers are good field-naturalists, and their opinions and 
statements are always worth consideration. ‘Three years ago I saw a Wild 
Cat, a magnificent specimen, among the rocks in a place called the Dubh- 
ghlaic, or Black Gully. The fierce barking of my dog at a distance 
called me to see what was up, and there, on a narrow ledge of rock in the 
face of a giddy precipice, was a large Wild Cat, with eyes flashing fire, hair 
erect, and tail thick as my wrist and stiff as a poker, glaring down on my 
bitch “ Lassie,” who was baying it from a broader and lower ledge, into 
which, in her excitement, she had scrambled, and from which, on the 
disappearance of the cat at my approach, I had some difficulty in rescuing 
her. About a dozen years ago, a very large Wild Cat was killed in a 
curious way in my immediate neighbourhood. 1t was in the spring of the 
year. One of our crofters with his family had returned from gathering sea- 
ware for manuring the land. Of the four panes in the cottage-window, one 
was of deal, and made to open and shut at pleasure on leather hinges, a 
very common arrangement for the purpose of ventilation, as well as for the 
convenience of the domestic cat when, from any cause, the door is kept shut. 
Looking through the opening on the occasion referred to, the man saw a 
strange cat of large size on the hearthstone, in the act of eating a chicken, 
one of un early spring brood that had been left with the hen by the fireside 
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