in the northern Highlands: it is most numerous in Inverness-shire, but it may be
considered rare even there. Mr. Harvie-Brown, writing in 1881 of its general
distribution, says: ‘ Extinct in many places frequented by the latter (the wild cat),
but, curiously enough, it has survived over a larger area up to a later date; that
is to say that, while the boundaries of the country at present inhabited by the
wild cat are easily defined and are gradually contracting, the occurrences of the
Marten are more sporadic, it often turning up in localities far distant from one
another where no records had previously occurred for many years.’ Until the
beginning of the nineteenth century the Marten was found all over the Highlands
and as far south as Ayrshire.
In these northern counties it occurs in small numbers, over the wood and
deer forest areas. It was common in Assynt until 1870, but in the ‘ Annals
of Scottish Natural History’ there are several records for the last few years. In
fact, a f e wk i l l e d every year in Inverpolly, Scowrie, Stoir, parts of Assynt^,;
In East Sutherland it has quite disappeared. In Ross-shire the Marten is now
extremely rare: it disappeared from the valley of Strathgarve and the Ullapool
district about i860. In Torridon and Dundonnel it lingered much later, an^,
recent records show that it is not extinct there. From Caithness it seems to
have disappeared; but though scarce in Inverness, a few still frequent the great
woods stretching round Grantown, Abernethy, Glenmore, and Rothiemurchus; it is
also found in the deer forests of Glenfeshie and Invereshie. All along the north
of Loch Ness it is not rare, being regularly trapped in Balmacaan, Glenmoriston,
and occasionally in Guisachan.
In Aberdeen it still lingers in the south-west of the county, especially about
Lochnagar and Braemar; there are records of several until about 1899, but it has
not been common in Aberdeenshire for very many years. In Argyllshire it was
fairly numerous until 18451 but now only a few remain in Glen Etive, Glencoe,
and the Blackmount, and perhaps Portalloch; there are captures recorded in 1900.
In Perthshire it is extinct, though it existed in the valley of the Tay in 1881 ;
one was killed at Glenartney in 1879. In Ayrshire one was captured in 1874
and one in 1875 6, and more recently still One was seen on the Solway in 1878
or 1879; it is not now found in any of the southern counties. At Kilmory,
Lochgilphead, one was taken in 1896.
With reference to the occurrence of the Marten in the outer islands of
Scotland the ‘ New Statistical Account’ (1845) mentions it as being extinct in
Jura, implying that the species was the inhabitant of the island at no very distant