452 



instance have I ever seen one show fight. I once had one 

 cornered in the rocks, and after vainly trying to escape he 

 turned upon nic, when a shot between the eyes settled the bat- 

 tle. WiUkats will attack deer; I have killed deer that showed 

 evidences of a fight with them. Red Foxes are very numerous 

 here and exceedingly destructive to game. They, with the 

 Wildcats, will exterminate game in a short time unless some- 

 thing is done to eradicate them. A large portion of this county 

 consists of old slashings and bark peelings which make an 

 ideal home for the cats and foxes. Since the county comrais- 

 sioners have refused to pay bounty on these predatory ani- 

 mals they have increased to a frightful extent. Their pelts 

 alone are not a sufiicient incentive for hunters to trap 

 them. I am in favor of a bounty on Foxes, Wild- 

 cats, and also on certain kinds of hawks and owls; 

 to be paid either by county or State. When the bounty 

 law was in force, game, such as Rabbits and Pheasants, 

 increased in proportion to the depletion of their four-footed 

 and feathered enemies. Since then it has changed and un- 

 less there is an incentive for trappers the sportsmen must soon 

 hang up his gun and use his pointer for sausage. 



A. KOCH, WlUiamsport, Lycoming County; 



Wildcats have been too rare in our neighborhood for more 

 than forty years to hear of any depredations. Know of an in- 

 stance where a boy, in winter, killed a large Wildcat with a 

 stone. Favor a bounty and think it should be paid by the 

 county. 



ZIBA SCOTT, Lackawanna County: 



The Wildcat is one of the most destructive animals we have, 

 both to the farmers and to game. Wildcats as a general thing 

 do not trouble the farmer much in the winter time, when they 

 retire to the forests and subsist principally on rabbits and 

 Pheasants. At this season of the year, when snow is deep, the 

 pheasants live mainly on buds of the trees. When the pheas- 

 ant has gotten its crop full of buds it often dives under the 

 snow leaving a hole where it goes in. Here is where the Wild- 

 cat gets in his deadly work on the unsuspecting Grouse. He 

 sneaks along until he gets within a bound of the place where 

 the bird rests and with one leap he lands right over the hole 

 where the bird sits, and nine times out of ten he gets the 

 Pheasant. I have seen hundreds of places in my time where 

 pheasants have been caught in the manner Just described. In 

 the ."timmer time when the leaves are out the Wildcat is the 



