132 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 



natural enemies, living and even acting in harmony 

 together. We see it chiefly in the domesticated 

 and in tamed wild animals. When visiting a friend 

 in Patagonia I was greatly astonished one day on 

 going out with a gun to shoot something followed 

 by the dogs to find a black cat in their company, 

 and to see her when I fired my first shot actually 

 dashing off before the dogs to retrieve the bird ! 



One of the amusing recollections of an old lady 

 friend of mine, a lover of animals, was of a pet cat 

 and rabbit which had been reared from babyhood 

 together and were always fed out of one saucer of 

 milk, and when they grew up from one dish. It 

 was common to see them exchange foods, and the 

 cat would be seen laboriously gnawing at a cabbage 

 stalk while the rabbit picked a bone. 



My friend Mr. Tregarthen, author of Wild Life at 

 the Land's End, has just kindly furnished me with 

 two or three remarkable instances known to him of 

 hunting and hunted animals living together in 

 happy companionship. One is of a tame fox, 

 taken when small and reared in the kennels with 

 fox-hounds. When fully grown its great game 

 when the dogs were taken out for exercise was 

 to scamper off and give them a chase. Invariably 

 when overtaken it would throw itself on its back 

 and allow itself to be worried in fun. They never 

 hurt it. Then there are two instances of otters 

 reared from puppyhood with otter-hounds. In one 

 case the otter would go otter-hunting with the 

 hounds ; in the second case the otter did not 



