162 



MAMMALS. 



Animals of Scotland,' by Harvie-Brown, in the Zoologist for 1881-2, 

 and also to the F. F. S. and C, p. 75. 



In the more eastern parts of Ross-shire the Wild Cat is fast 

 approaching extinction, if it is not already extinct. The last 

 known to us as having been obtained there was killed by Mr. 

 A. Macdonald about 1873, and it was even then considered 

 rare. In Strathconon they existed about ten years ago; ten or 

 fifteen years before that they were very plentiful. 



They travel, however, long distances, as is evident from their 

 tracks in snow, and other signs constantly brought before the notice 

 of the foresters, shepherds, fox-hunters, and gamekeepers, who 

 are well acquainted with their habits and haunts. A very con- 

 siderable district may be thus tenantless for a number of years, 

 and they may suddenly reappear at haunts long since believed 

 to have been deserted for ever. They naturally choose the 

 cairns most suitable for their harbourage on arrival in a new 

 country; and thus cairns long ago known as the favourite 

 haunts of the species are rediscovered and reoccupied. In this 

 direction of inquiry the great use of the study of topography and 

 the names of localities is evident, if one desires to form a correct 

 notion of the early distribution of many species. 



In 1889 we received abundance of records of their existence 

 over a wide tract of country north of Loch Ness, including 

 returns and dates from Drumnadrochit, Glen Urquhart, Glen 

 Affric, Mam Soul, Chisholm's Pass, and over the watershed of 

 West Ross ; and they were then returned as ' abundant ' from 

 several of these districts, both in the valleys of the tributaries 

 which flow east to the Moray Firth, and in those of the streams 

 which flow westward from the 'West Ross' watershed. Thus 

 in Glenmoriston they were reported as numerous by Mr. Peter 

 Burgess, factor, as many as a dozen or twenty being usually 

 trapped during the winter months ; and indeed it was reported at 

 that time as ' still common on the north side of the Caledonian 

 Canal ' by numerous correspondents. 



Mr. Charles Harvie, of Largo, Fife, saw one alive in Glen 

 Afi'ric, in a cage in a gentleman's court-yard, and skins hanging 

 up in gamekeepers' museums was far from an uncommon sight, 

 between that glen and the Chisholm's Pass, and down to the 

 shore-line on the west side of the ridge. 



