PUSSY HUNTING 151 



for the time being they take a good long look at 

 any moving object approaching them. And having 

 decided that the object is not to be trusted, they 

 as often as not reckon that it will suffice for th!e 

 emergency to hop away. So the cats get a great 

 number of them, and enjoy life hugely while the 

 feast lasts, feeling very fine and wild and per- 

 haps despising themselves for ever having 

 descended to garbage when it is so clear that 

 Nature meant them for the hunter's life. If they 

 have any fault to find with the conditions it is 

 that their prey is too easily captured, and hardly 

 justifies the skill they put into the work. 



To watch a cat at its hunting is an extraordinary 

 interesting spectacle, if only one can keep one's 

 sympathy with the birds well enough in hand to 

 appreciate the beauties of stealthy movement dis- 

 played. I watched a cat the other day stalking 

 a fledgling mavis through a large bed of rhubarb 

 in a market -garden, and nothing could have been 

 prettier in its way. Pussy was no stray. She had 

 all the appearance of a well-cared-for house cat, 

 but she might have had a prolonged and 

 thorough jungle education, so perfect were her 

 jungle manners. She was uphill, and sighted the 

 bird on the farther side of the rhubarb -bed about 

 thirty yards away. The first part of the approach 

 was made by crawling under the large leaves of 

 the plants, and as each row was passed she lifted 

 her head cautiously during a long pause. When 

 about quarter of the distance had been covered 

 the mavis happened to turn tail on to its un- 

 suspected enemy. Instantly the cat took advantage 



