166 



MAMMALS. 



Scottish Naturalist^ vol. i. p. 155 (1871), where Mr. R. Paton of 

 Perth says : ' I have lately been informed that no less than ten 

 Wild Cats have been killed on one property in Badenoch. One 

 I have at present measures 3 feet 6 inches from nose to tip of 

 tail/ 



On the other hand — but ten years later than Mr. Paton's 

 record — we ourselves examined a number of skins said to have 

 been obtained in Badenoch, whilst in the hands of a local middle- 

 man not far removed from that district, all of which were simply 

 large ' tabbies,' which, undoubtedly, in many cases, rival in size 

 and beauty the true wild breed, and to an ordinary observer 

 would pass current easily enough. Mr. Eagle-Clarke also tells us 

 ' he was informed that a specimen was captured near Kingussie 

 in February 1891.' We examined a number of skins that year 

 offered for sale, but failed to find one true Wild Cat amongst 

 them. 



Still more recently, however, we saw a Wild Cat that had 

 been sent in to Inverness by Mr. J. Chisholm, gamekeeper at 

 Foyers, and which had been killed there in March 1893. This 

 Cat had been going about for three months previously. Mr. 

 Chisholm further adds in a letter, dated March 7th, 1893: — *I 

 have here killed fourteen Wild Cats in, one winter about ten 

 years ago, and, to the best of my knowledge, there has only one 

 been killed in this district for the last five years ; but they are 

 still very numerous in Glenmoriston and Portclair forests.' 



From this and some other notes we are inclined to think that 

 these forests are the last strongholds of the Wild Cat throughout 

 the whole of our present area, and probably in Great Britain. 



Mr. E. Thomson dismisses the Wild Cat very summarily from 

 his Fauna of the Parish of Ardclach. He says: — *An undoubted 

 specimen has not been found here during the present generation. 

 Any reputed occurrence for many years past, when examined by 

 an expert, has always turned out to be simply the streaked variety 

 of the domestic cat run wild.' 



Perhaps the last likely authentic record from the eastern 

 districts — if it is authentic — is Edward's, who stated that one 

 was obtained in Glen Avon, which measured over four feet in 

 length, etc. 



Wild Cats are mostly nocturnal in their habits, and, as a rule, 



