in the possession of the late Sir W. C. Brooks. One was killed at Old Mar Lodgë
in 1890, and another in Glenmuick in December 1891/
In Forfar, Kincardine, Banff, Elgin, and Nairn the Wild Cat has been
practically extinct since 1850, except in the woods of Darnaway and Dairy, where
local rumour said, in 1891, when I visited Darnaway, it existed, though very rare.
Although now extremely scarce, if not altogether extinct, in the central and
south districts of Inverness-shire, northern and western Inverness is, with western
Ross-shire, the main stronghold of the Wild Cat to-day.1 The species is still
fairly common in Arisaig, Knoydart, Lochaber, Nether Lochaber, and in
Glenmoriston, Guisechan, and Balmacaan deer forests north of Loch Ness, and
from these parts Mr. Macleay, in Inverness, annually receives from eight to ten
specimens. No place in Great Britain has been so favoured of recent years by
Wild Cats as the high grounds of the Balmacaan forests, though lately they have
been much persecuted.
The fondness of Wild Cats for this place may have been due to the
protection formerly afforded to the species by the Earls of Seafield, who always
took much interest in them as well as keeping numbers in confinement. In 1879
my father rented a charming little place’ called Ghivach up in the heart of the
Balmacaan forest, and on Sunday it was the custom to call on the old Earl, who
took much pride in showing us his Wild Cats and their families, which were
confined in stout wooden cages in the yard of Balmacaan. Eight or ten of the
Cats were always kept, and they have on several occasions bred and reared their
young. Since the death of two successive Earls of Seafield the place has been
rented by tenants, and the Wild Cats have not been preserved in either a wild or a
domesticated condition.2 About Strontian and Malig there are still a few Wild Cats.
Probably now extinct in eastern Ross, the species becomes more numerous
in the centre of the county, though even here it is scarce. Several years have
elapsed since one was killed in Strathconan, Braulen, and Patt district, though it
is still found in Guisechan, and on the south side of Glen Strathfarrer towards
Ceannacroc and Glen Affaric. In the north-west from Garve to Ullapool it is
now very rare, and I can obtain no account of a recent capture.
In Sutherland the Duke of Sutherland does not allow the slaughter of Wild
1 In a letter to me, June 4, 1904, Mr. William Macleay says : ‘ Most of the Wild Cats I get come from Glenmoriston
and Balmacaan. I believe there are more there than in the whole of the rest o f Scotland. There are hardly any, as far as I
can find out, in Sutherland and Caithness.’
* There is now (1904) one male Wild Cat in a cage at Balmacaan.