^ViLD•C•AT HUNTING. hV.I 



his cruel hold, the more vigorously to defend himself. 

 Riiigwood, though covered with jetting blood, jumped 

 upon the cat, and shook away as if unharmed in the 

 contest. 



Sportsmen, in. hunting the cat, provide themselves 

 generally with pistols — not for the purpose of killing 

 the cat, but to annoy it, so that it will leap from the 

 tree, when it has taken to one. Sometimes from negli- 

 gence these infantile shooting-irons are left at home, and 

 the cat gets safely out of the reach of sticks, or whatever 

 other missile may be convenient. This is a most pro- 

 voking affair ; dogs and sportsmen lose all patience ; 

 and as no expedient suggests itself, the cat escapes for 

 the time. 



I once knew a cat thus perched out of reach, that 

 was brought to terras in a very singular manner. 



The tree on which the animal was lodged being a 

 very high one, and secure from all interruption, it looked 

 down upon its pursuers with the most provoking compla- 

 cency ; every effort to dislodge it had failed, and the 

 hunt was about to be abandoned in despair, when one 

 of the sportsmen discovered a grapevine that passed 

 directly over the cat's body, and by running his eyes 

 along its circumvolutions, traced it down to the ground ; 

 a judicious jerk at the vine touched the cat on the rump; 

 this was most unexpected, and it instantly leaped to the 

 ground from a height of over forty feet ; striking on its 

 fore paws, and throwing a sort of rough somerset, it 



