^4 



MAMMALS. 



they would be found to have been killed by one hand and in one 

 place, or in only a very few spots. The details, such as they are, 

 are as follows: In 1891, 3 were got; then 3 in 1892; 2 in 1893; 

 1 in 1894 ; 1 in 1895 ; 6 in 1896 : 4 in 1897 : in 1898 ; 3 in 1899 ; 

 4 in 1900 ; and 2 in 1901. 



On the Atholl estates, during forty years, only one was sent in 

 in 1876 and two in 1883. It should be remembered that these 

 Breadalbane lists refer only to the Perthshire areas of the territories. 



The commercial values of Otters' and Badgers' skins, etc., are 

 greater than the rewards would cover. The same may be said in 

 part also of those of the Marten and even the Wild Cat, and in a 

 lesser degree of the Polecat ; but one is able to judge more easily of 

 their respective scarcity or abundance from other sources than the 

 vermin lists alone. 



Otters breed in the cliffs or clefts and cairns at Loch Dochart 

 (see Photo, the first of the set, under Daubenton's Bat) — aud. Mrs. 

 Place and Mr. Place, viva voce at Fortingal to me. May 1905. 



Meles taxus (Schreh.). Badger. 



Much rarer than formerly in the mountainous portions, but commoner 

 in the central and western districts than in the central and eastern 

 parts. Pare in cultivated and low grounds as compared with its 

 former distribution. 



The old Stafisfiml Account gives Moulin (v. p. 53), Muthill (vii. 

 p. 486), Monievaird and Strowan (^dii. p. 572), "Weem (xii. p. 134), 

 Monzie (xv. p. 244). 



The New Statistical Account, referring to the parish of Fordoun, 

 says : "The Badger supposed extinct." So even at that time (1843) 

 it appears to have been a decadent species in the more easterly 

 tracts of Strathmore. And, says the same writer, "seldom met 

 viith. near Dunotter," and "said to be extinct in the neighbourhood 

 of the Grampians." 



Somewhat earlier than this date Eobertson in his General View of 

 the Agriculture of Kincardineshire (1807) included it as "a native, and 

 very harmless animal." 



Now, in 1849 Badgers occupied earths at Grey in Forfarshire, 

 and Keddie — before mentioned, p. 22 — trapped a couple. This 

 Col. H. "W. Feilden can confirm from his own observation. 



In the west, when J. Colquhoun wrote his Spmiing Days (1866), 

 he spoke in a general way of the habitation of Badgers in the low 



