SEPTEMBER 187 



which all trace of the victim has disappeared. By 

 the side of a path just inside the wood are the bodies 

 of defunct cats, dry and mummy-like. One seems 

 to recognise on their faces the innocent expression of 

 the hearth-rug pet, slain during her first stalk, and the 

 scowl of the hardened offender who died fighting 

 hard, with teeth and claws in full play. Some of 

 these cats, the progeny in the second or third genera- 

 tion of house-tabbies which have taken to the woods, 

 reach a great size and revert in colour and markings 

 so completely to those characteristic of the true wild 

 cat as often to be mistaken for that species. 

 In every collection such as the one which we have 

 described, will be found the weather-beaten remains 

 of several carrion-crows, while blue-barred wings serve 

 to identify the jays even in the last stage of 

 dilapidation. 



Where game-preserving is carried on in the neigh- 

 bourhood of wild hill-districts, there will probably be 

 in addition the remains of ravens and buzzards. 

 We shall rarely nowadays find the polecat, unless in 

 Western Wales, where it is still common. Marten and 

 wild-cat (the genuine Felis catus) are not likely to 

 fall into the hands of any but a Highland keeper, and 

 so scarce have they become that he is now more 

 disposed to forward them to a taxidermist than to 

 nail them up. The first named are the ordinary 

 victims which constitute the holocaust, the great 



