4 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Braemore, a few miles from where the above evidence was seen. 

 These are the only ones heard of or seen in the district for a very 

 long time. In tho east of the county it appears to be equally 

 rare, as it is now more than twenty years since the last one was 

 killed on Balnagown by a keeper of the name of Scott. A little 

 further inland, in Strath Conan, it is reported as having been 

 very common before game was preserved, but does not appear 

 to have been common for the past twenty years (or say since 

 1860). The last killed was about eight years ago (say 1872). 

 At Struy, also in the east of the county, it is reported as 

 being almost extinct, and this extermination has taken place 

 since 1874, between which date and the present eight have been 

 trapped. 



Invemcsslure. — In this county it still holds its own fairly well, 

 though not so abundant as formerly. In some places, where 

 once common, it has become quite rare. The last Badger seen 

 on Guisachan, in the east of the county, was trapped at Cogie, 

 four miles from Guisachan House, in the winter of 1855, and 

 none have since been seen or tracked in the snow, as I am 

 informed by Lord Tweedmouth. Its former residence there is 

 shown in the name of a waterfall close to Guisachan, called to this 

 day Eassan-nam-hroc. A little more inland, in Glen Urquhart and 

 Glen Morrison, it still exists, though not very plentifully. " At 

 the present moment," writes my informant, "there are two 

 Badgers within two miles of where I write." This was in March, 

 1880. It is reported also as not yet extinct in the Glenmore 

 district, south of the Spey. Further west, and north of the 

 Caledonian Canal, it is still abundant about Fort Augustus. In 

 Badenoch Badgers are counted rare, but are still present in 

 Ardverikie or Ben Aulder Deer-forest. Two were got in 1880 

 also at Corrie, Invereshie, on the property of Sir George Mac- 

 pherson Grant, Bart. Four were killed within three miles of 

 Loch Errochd Lodge in 1878, and an informant tcld a corre- 

 spondent of mine that two years ago he counted no less than 

 thirteen Badgers sunning themselves in a choice spot not far 

 from Ardverikie Lodge. They are carefully preserved here — as 

 indeed are all the native wild animals — by the proprietor, Sir 

 John Bamsden, Bart. 



Nairn, Elgin. — A very marked cause of their decrease here is 

 stated by the Brothers Steuart, in their ' Lays of the Deer 



