26 THE WILD CAT OF EUROPE. 



much care is necessary in taking the reports of keepers 

 and others as to the existence of the Wild Cat in 

 the Hebrides ; and these remarks apply equally to 

 the reports of the presence of Wild Cats in many 

 other districts besides North Britain : — 



" Of many entries of ' Wild Cats ' in the very com- 

 plete list of vermin killed between 1876 and 1885 

 inclusive (furnished by the courtesy of the Chamber- 

 lain of the Levrs, Mr. W. Mackay) not one can be 

 held as applicable to the true vpild species ; and yve 

 mention this here in order to set up a guide-post to 

 others in all future collections of similar statistics. 

 The said records present a steadily increasing crop of 

 cats averaging 28'7 {sic) for ten years, there being 

 30 killed in 1876 and 41 in 1885 ; now from all the 

 records of true Wild Cats that we possess (and of 

 these we have a large number from many parts of 

 Scotland) such an increase is most unlikely, if not 

 actually impossible, and besides our own observations, 

 we have a still higher authority in the late Mr. E. 

 R. Alston, all pointing to the fact that Felis cafits 

 has not existed in the Outer Hebrides within historic 

 times." 



