Mr. J. E. Harting on Forest Animals. 95
and their keepers. That it is a very destructive animal
there can be no doubt, not only to game, but also to
poultry, for it will visit the farmyard and henroost, and in
one night kill many more fowls than it can eat or carry
away.
I once discovered a whole family of polecats (two old
ones and four young ones) in a flint cairn not more than
fifty yards from a poultry-yard. They were tracked after
rain, and the stones being removed one by one, we sud-
denly came upon a hollow in which the whole family were
snugly curled up. One of the old ones escaped; of the
rest, four were killed and one was taken alive.
That beautiful animal the Marten, once so common in
English forests, is still to be met with in certain parts of
the country which are favourable for its protection, but it
must be regarded, at least in the south, as one of the
rarest of "forest animals." The last killed in Essex, so far
as can be ascertained, was trapped by the present head
keeper of Epping Forest in April, 1853, in one of Mr.
Maitland's covers at Loughton.
Did time permit, I could say a good deal about its dis-
tribution and habits, and the former mode of hunting it.
The Wild Cat, which was also a beast of chase in former
days, is now believed to be extinct in England, as well as
in the southern counties of Scotland.
Mr. Alston believes that none now exist south of the
northern districts of Argyll and Perthshire. Mr. Harvie
Brown, who has been at considerable pains to obtain in-
formation on the point, has come to the conclusion, from
statistics which he has collected, that "the wild cat is
now extinct throughout a large portion of Scotland, namely,
all south and east of a line commencing—roughly speaking
—at Oban, in Argyllshire, passing up the Brander Pass to
Dalmally; following the boundary of Perthshire, and in-
cluding Rannoch Moor ; continued north-westwards to the
junction of the three counties of Perth, Forfar, and Aber-
deen ; thence across the source of the Dee northward to
Tomintoul, in Banffshire; and, lastly, from Tomintoul to
the city of Inverness. Northward and westward of this