THE RARER ANIMALS OF SCOTLAND. 165 
was credibly informed that these were killed in the neighbourhood 
of Loch Cor. At Culzean they are considered almost extinct now 
(1880), though occasionally one is caught by the keepers. 
Lanarkshire.—The late Mr. E. R. Alston had not heard of a 
Polecat in this county for at least twenty years. 
Haddingtonshire.—Dr. Crombie, of North Berwick, informs 
me that the last he heard of was shot about a mile from North 
Berwick, about twenty years ago (say 1860). 
Edinburgh.—In Midlothian the only Polecats of which I have 
record are—one obtained on the farm of Tala Hill, and one seen 
some years ago at Crosswood Hill, as I am informed by Mr. Charles 
Cook. Mr. James Haldane remembers seeing one at Edmonstone, 
near Liberton, about twenty-five years ago, which was afterwards 
trapped by the keepers. 
Linlithgow.—At Champ-fleurie two Polecats were killed in 1847 
by David Carr, and none have been seen there since. The same 
man killed nine between 1838 and 1845 at Lochcote in the same 
county. 
Stirling and Dumbarton.—In 1877 Mr. James Lumsden re- 
corded the species as “quite extinct now, except by name.” 
Mr. Colquhoun tells me they were at one time so plentiful that 
they might be caught at almost any time. He considers that 
since the reclamation of waste land ‘‘ Foumarts” have become 
searcer; but in this alone, I think, we can hardly look for the 
cause, for they are becoming scarce even in the deer-forests, and 
in some localities prefer cultivated to waste lands. Fifty-five years 
ago (say 1825) Polecats could not have been very common in 
Stirlingshire, for people even at that time were known to go a 
considerable distance to see one when obtained. Drummond, who 
was gamekeeper at Dunipace in my grandfather’s time, occasionally 
trapped afew. Rabbits are said to have been introduced to the 
Kast of Stirlingshire about 1825, or between that time and 1830, 
by the fox-hunters, to afford food for the foxes. I do not remember 
hearing of any Polecats being obtained since that time; but an 
old mole-catcher told me of his having seen several on Gallow- 
muir about twenty years ago. Mr. Nichol Kerr, at Killearn, says 
they are extinct in that district of Stirlingshire, and he has not 
heard of one being killed for the last twenty years. About thirty 
years ago (say 1850), when the present gamekeeper at Blair- 
drummond, in the south-west of Perthshire, was keeper at Sauchie, 
