8 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
THE PAST AND PRESENT DISTRIBUTION OF SOME OF 
THE RARER ANIMALS OF SCOTLAND. 
By J. A. Harvir-Brown, F.Z.S. 
I. Toe Wi Car. 
Ir has been truly remarked that “the exterminating process 
is generally one that excites little or no attention until the doom 
of the victim is sealed.”* Thus we find that, although much has 
been done in collecting and publishing records connected with 
our now extinct species, such as, for example, the Great Aukt 
and the Wolf, not to speak of the more remote Beaver, Boar, 
Bear, and many others,{ comparatively little attention has been 
paid to the animals which, though not extinct, yet in this country 
are on the fair way of becoming so. 
For some time past I have accumulated statistics concerning 
the occurrence of several of our rarer indigenous Scottish mammals 
and birds, many of which, though formerly abundant and widely 
dispersed, have, in comparatively recent times, disappeared from 
certain districts and localities, retreating to the wilder and less 
accessible portions of the country, before the adverse circum- 
stances which have been gradually surrounding them. Confining 
my investigations to Scotland, for the most part, I have taken up 
this subject in the hope of saving from oblivion such anecdotes and 
statistics as I have been able to collect, independently of already 
published records in easily available works of reference. 
One thing should be borne in mind in such enquiries as the 
present, viz., if ordinary care be taken to collect statistics from 
as many neighbouring districts as possible, a fairly accurate idea 
must be obtained of the latest occurrences of our rarer Carnivore. 
Great as distances are in the Highlands, the proverbial “ bittock” 
lengthening out to miles, news travels fleetly, and especially any 
* A. Newton, ‘The Gare-fowl and its Historians,” Nat. Hist. Review, 
1865, p. 467. 
+ For the history of this extinct species in Scotland see the above-cited 
article, and, besides other minor papers, those by Mr. Robert Gray, ‘ Birds 
of the West of Scotland,’ and Dr. J. A. Smith, ‘ Remains of the Great Auk, 
Alca impennis, in Caithness’ (Proc. Royal Antiquarian Soc. Edinb., vol. xiii., 
New Series, I., 1878-9), where most of the information regarding it will be 
found. 
+ See J. E. Harting, ‘ Extinct British Animals.’ Triibner & Co. 1880. 
