180 



MAMMALS. 



two were killed on Ben Bhragie, Golspie, and were brought to 

 Mr. G. R. Lawson. They are preserved by the Duke about 

 Dunrobin as far as possible. From 1877 to 1881 several others 

 were killed in other parts of Sutherland, between Ben Armine 

 and Glen Loth. 



South of the Dornoch Firth we have only one later record 

 than those already given, for the eastern sides of the counties of 

 Ross-shire and Inverness-shire, viz., the following, extracted from 

 the Inverness Courier for March 31, 1893: — 



' DiNGM^ALL. — There is at present on view in the shop in 

 High Street, Dingwall, of the Messrs. Macleay, gunmakers and 

 naturalists, a beautiful specimen of a male Badger, shot by Mr. 

 John Laidlaw at Rogie, near Garve. The Badger measures fully 

 three feet from snout to tip of tail.' 



In May 1879, distinct evidence of the presence of a Badger 

 was found by the forester in Fannich Forest, it having passed the 

 winter in a den there. In the course of the preceding spring a 

 Badger was trapped in the neighbouring Forest of Braemore, a few 

 miles from where the above evidence was found. These are the 

 only ones heard of or seen in the district for a very long time. 

 In Strath Conon it is reported as having been very common before 

 game was preserved, but appears to have become rare since 1860. 

 The last killed was about 1872. At Struy, also in the east of the 

 county, it is reported as being almost extinct. Mr. A. Ross, the 

 keeper, writing us from there, says : — ' The Badger is quite an 

 animal of the past here; the last one killed was in 1876; about 

 twenty years ago they were very common' {in lit. 12/ii/93). 



In other places, where it was once common, the Badger has 

 become quite rare. The last seen at Guisachan, in the centre of 

 the county of Inverness, was trapped at Cougie, four miles from 

 Guisachan House, in the winter of 1855, and none have since been 

 seen, as we were informed by the late Lord Tweedmouth. Its 

 former residence there is indicated by the name of a waterfall close 

 to Guisachan, called to this day Eassan-nam-hroc. A little more 

 inland, in Glen Urquhart and Glenmoriston, it still exists, though 

 not very plentifully. 'At the present moment,' writes our in- 

 formant, 'there are two Badgers within two miles of where I 

 • write.' This was in March 1880. It is reported also as not yet 

 extinct in the Glenmore district, south of the Spey. Farther west, 



