182 



MAMMALS. 



Xmas 1880, when it managed to escape among the rocks of its 

 native river' (R. Thomson, in lit 21st May 1892), at the 'Rock 

 Walk,' a short way below the mansion-house. The remains of a 

 Badger- warren are still distinctly traceable among the soft soil at 

 * Jacob's Banks ' (R. T. in lit. February 1893). 



At the date of May 1893 there were certainly two Badgers 

 upon the Netherdale estate lower down the river Deveron than 

 Rothiemay. Mr. Eraser, the keeper, shot one and trapped three 

 about 1888. One of these is now in the possession of Captain 

 Keith Maitland, who then instructed the keeper not to kill any 

 more. They were still present in 1894; and in 1895 two were 

 trapped or otherwise obtained at Forglen, about five miles lower 

 down the Deveron than Netherdale. None had been seen there 

 previously for fourteen years. 



Captain Dunbar-Brander tells us he knew of three ' earths ' 

 in the Oak Wood near Elgin, one in the Balmuckity Wood, one 

 at Todholes,! now called Pitairlie, one in the wood at Clays 

 Briggs, and one in the brae at Ardivot (Elgin and Nairn Uxp'ess). 



The last Badger Captain Dunbar-Brander remembers seeing 

 was one which Mr. St. John and himself dug out in a belt of 

 wood near the road passing Lochnabo. This would be about 

 1854. Gordon, now a working gardener in Elgin, dug for them. 

 ♦Possibly,' continues Captain Dunbar-Brander, 'there may still 

 be an earth near the old Danish camp on the top of the Quarry- 

 wood Hill, as I have heard of a poacher who ran a Badger into a 

 net spread for a hare in that neighbourhood.' 



In Nairnshire the Badger is scarce, but they still exist in 

 Darnaway, and twenty-seven years ago they were numerous at 

 Dalvey; one, perhaps the last, was killed there about 1876. In 

 the Keith district the last obtained was a sow with four young, 

 which were trapped upon Keith Lodge shooting about 1868. 



In 1891 a family of Badgers was seen by a keeper in Nairn- 

 shire playing about together, both young and old. None of them 

 were molested, so it is probable that the species may live some 

 years yet. 



A correspondent of ours writes us : — ' So far as I am able to 

 judge, there is not in the Highlands of Scotland any place where 



1 Tod-holes or Fox-holes. As Captain Dunbar-Brander informs us — ' The Fox and 

 the Badger seem to live amicably in the same earth,' loc. cit. 



