164 



MAMMALS. 



preserves them as far as possible, and they only get caught 

 when they enter traps set for other vermin. Two were killed in 

 1886, and Mr. E. C. Ellice wrote us: — *I am sorry to say that 

 one of the keepers killed two Wild Cats this year. It is impos- 

 sible to keep them out of the traps set for vermin' {in lit 

 December 4th, 1886). Another seems to have been killed at 

 the same place on May 9th, 1888, and yet another in the winter 

 of 1891-2, so it would appear that they are not so very rare in 

 that district. 



The wild districts lying along both shores of Loch Ness were 

 great resorts of Wild Cats, and even at the present time they are 

 more abundant in the forests on the north side than elsewhere, 

 though this does not mean that they are by any means plentiful. 

 A fine pair were sent in from Dundreggan to Inverness for preserva- 

 tion in March 1893. One was killed at Strathgarve in August 

 1892, but Mr. Mackenzie, the head-keeper on Ben Wyvis, tells us 

 they are extinct there now, only one or two having been killed 

 in the last twenty years. 



In a letter dated February 12th, 1893, Mr. A. Ross, keeper 

 at Struy, writes : — ' There are a few Wild Cats left alive 

 in this district, — iwy few indeed, — as, with trapping, etc., they 

 are fast disappearing. The last killed here were in January 

 1891, when I trapped three of them in the same trap in ten 

 days' time.' 



In Glen AfFric, in 1893, the keeper at Ardnamulloch told Mr. 

 Doncaster that a few Wild Cats were still to be found in the 

 lower part of the glen. 



Now turning to the more southern parts of our area, and speak- 

 ing of dates and distribution down to the present time, we have 

 little indeed to record except negatives since 1880. 



As long ago as 1844 Dr. Gordon spoke of its rarity. He 

 says : — ' Found only in the largest deer-forests and sub-alpine 

 rocks and valleys of The Province. One killed at Cawdor Castle 

 measured, from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail, 3 feet 

 9 inches, of which the tail occupied 15 ' (!). 



About Delnabo, on the river Avon, and above Tomintoul, 

 it was spoken of as having become extinct by 1855. 



Writing in 1891, Mr. W. Robertson said: — 'Seventeen years 

 ago — say 1874 — when I had charge of all Duthil Forest, one of 



