CHAPTER FOUR THE WILD CAT 



was so difficult to kill. If a tame cat has nine lives, a wild 

 cat must have a dozen. Sometimes one of these animals 

 takes up its residence at no great distance from a house,and 

 enteringr the hen-houses and out-bulldingrs.carriesoff fowls 

 or even lambs in the most audacious manner. Like other 

 vermin,the wildcat haunts the shores of thelakesand rivers, 

 andit is therefore easy to knowwhere to laya trap for them. 

 Having caught and killed one of the colony, the rest of them 

 are sure to be taken if the body of their slain relative is left 

 in some place not far from their usual hunting-ground, and 

 surrounded with traps, as every wild cat who passes within 

 a considerable distance of the place will to a certainty come 

 to it. The same plan may be adopted successfully in trap- 

 ping foxes, who also are sure to visit the dead body of any 

 other fox which they scent during their nightly walk. There 

 is no animal more destructive than a common house-cat, 

 when she takes to hunting in the woods. In this case they 

 should alwaysbe destroyed, aswhen once they havelearned 

 to prefer hares and rabbits to rats and mice, they are sure 

 to hunt the larger animals only. I believe, however, that 

 by cropping their ears close to the head, cats may be kept 

 from hunting, as they cannot bear the dew or rain to enter 

 these sensitive organs. Tame cats who have once taken to 

 the woods soon get shy and wild, and then produce their 

 young in rabbit-holes, decayed trees, andotherquiet places; 

 thus laying the foundation of a half- wild race. It is worthy 

 of notice, that whatever colour the parents of these semi- 

 wild cats may have been, those bred out of them are almost 

 invariably of the beautiful brindled grey colour, as the wild 

 cats. A shepherd, whose cat had come to an untimely end 



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