16 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
obtained was trapped by Mr. J. MacNaughten upwards of twenty 
years ago (say 1858 or 1857); it was taken in Cambushinnie 
Wood, adjoining Cromlix, and was killed by a blow of a rabbit- 
spade. ‘I'wo were killed in the west of the county, near Aberfoil, 
one by a keeper named Scott, the other by a shepherd and his 
dogs, about the year 1855.* Going a little farther north, and 
taking in another belt of Perthshire south of a line drawn east 
and west through Loch Rannoch and Killiecrankie, including the 
Moor of Rannoch, up to the confines of the county and the march 
‘of Argyleshire, and the head of Glencoe, we make out the species 
to be extinct in Breadalbane, Athole, and the district indicated, 
unless, indeed, the record that in 1879 one (a young female) was 
killed within four miles of Dunkeld, and that the tracks of another 
larger (and doubtless older) specimen were seen in the snow about 
the same time, can be held to affirm its non-extinction. Previous 
to this capture, which was accomplished by two shepherd-dogs, no 
specimen of the true Wild Cat had been secured for fourteen years 
(say 1865) in this district. Close to the boundary of our last belt 
of Perthshire—viz., on the north of the line drawn through Loch 
Earn (ut. swp.)—the last killed thereabouts was at Dunira, about 
twenty-six years ago (say 1854), as I am informed by Mr. Duncan 
MacGregor, now twenty-two years gamekeeper in Glenartney. 
“This was at a place called Scarnach Vhor, or Big Carn. It is 
right behind the present Mansion House, on the face of the hill 
overlooking the Policies, and the capture took place under the 
following circumstances :—The keepers, in their rambles, noticed 
that foxes were frequenting the carns, and set traps in all the 
available places among the stones. Next morning, to their great 
surprise, a large-sized Wild Cat was caught. No one knew whence 
he had come, because not so much as a track had been seen on 
the snow for years previously, and none had been seen since.” 
One was killed in 1869 in Finlarig Woods by Duncan Dewar, now 
gamekeeper at Remony; it was a very large female, and is now in 
his collection. Another was killed, also by Mr. Dewar, above 
Auchumore House, in 1856, in a deep glen; it was a very large 
* In a recently published popular work of great merit, as regards the 
beautiful illustrations—viz., ‘Picturesque Europe’—occurs the statement 
that ‘On Ben Venue is the Coir nan Uriskin, or Cave of the Goblin’s Cairn, 
which shelters Wild Cats and Badgers.” As regards Wild Cats, however, 
the verb must now be used in the past tense. 
