THE RARER ANIMALS OF SCOTLAND. 13 
the species, in almost every county of the mainland of Scotland, 
indicating a wide range before they began to decline; and they 
were so common that they were considered as animals of the 
chase, and sportsmen sallied out for their destruction (Fennel, 
‘Field Naturalist,’ 1834, p. 191). Some of these localities, how- 
ever, are thus named, not after the Wild Cat proper, but after the 
Marten-cat, and it is now next to impossible to decide, in every 
case, which of the two species suggested the name. It is to be 
hoped that before long the results of close attention devoted to 
this most interesting branch of study—topography—by an able 
Gaelic scholar, will throw considerable light upon the former 
distribution of many of our indigenous animals. 
Dumfriesshire, Kirkcudbright, Wigton.— Kixamining into the 
authenticity of the traditional last-killed Wild Cat, which is 
reported to have been obtained at Mabie by a keeper named 
Cameron, I find that it is not authentic. ‘The specimen has been 
in the Observatory Museum, Dumfries, for somewhere about 
thirty-four years, and on close inspection proves to be only, as 
Mr. Service neatly expresses it, an unusually “ fiercely-stuffed 
specimen” of the common tabby. ‘There are other traditions of 
Wild Cats in the Stewartry, and we certainly believe that they 
are not all purely mythical, though it is difficult to authenticate 
each statement. All, however, appear to agree in this, that no 
true Wild Cats have been known to exist in the district for more 
than fifty years. On the other hand, many agree that true Wild 
Cats were not uncommon at one time. Mr. John M'‘Kie, of 
Anchorlee, writes to Mr. Service that they were common on the 
Souwick shore about the beginning of the century. It was related 
to Mr. M‘Kie, when a boy, by a native of the parish of Borgue, 
named James M‘Taggart, that he saw two fox-hounds belonging 
to “ Alexander,’ the county huntsman, so torn by one or more 
Wild Cats near the cliffs at Souwick Glebe, that they had to be 
destroyed; and that ever afterwards Alexander avoided the place 
when hunting. ‘“ And,” continues Mr. M‘Kie, “even in my own 
recollection, it was with considerable doubt that we approached the 
place when out birdsnesting.” ‘The same person told Mr. M‘Kie 
that the last of the breed was killed by a man named Beck, then 
farmer in Balmaangan; but Mr. M‘Kie does not remember the 
exact date, “but it must have been sixty or seventy years ago,” say 
1810 or 1820. These traditionary records are worth preserving, 
