THE DEER-SKIN. 217 



Besides this large and ferocious species, the warrens upon 

 the coast suffer much from the common cat becoming wild, 

 and borrowing in the rabbit-holes. They are sometimes 

 surprised and shot in the sand-banks, or taken in traps ; but 

 they are generally too wary to be approached and hunting 

 only by night, during the day they sleep in their dens, and 

 are rarely met abroad. 



Some estimate of their numbers may be formed, from the 

 circumstance of five males having been killed in a herdsman's 

 out-house which joined the warren. They had been attracted 

 there by one of their own species, and the noise having 

 alarmed the peasant, he guessed the cause, and cautiously 

 managed to stop the hole, by which they gained entrance, 

 with a turf -cleave. Knowing the value of the capture, he kept 

 guard upon the prisoners till morning, and then despatched 

 information to the Lodge. My cousin, with his followers, 

 promptly repaired to the place, and, surrounding the barn 

 with guns and greyhounds, bolted the wild cats successively, 

 until the whole number were dispatched. This chasse was 

 not only novel, but profitable. After the death of their 

 persecutors, the rabbits increased prodigiously ; but fears are 

 entertained that these destructive animals are become once 

 more abundant in the sand-banks. 



When the dressings were removed, we found that the poor 

 lad had been so much injured, that apprehension of lock-jaw 

 induced us to send him directly to the infirmary. There is a 

 belief, and one more reasonable than many popular opinions 

 in Bally croy, that a wild cat's bite is particularly venomous. 

 My cousin remembers a case which terminated fatally with a 

 servant of his father's ; and the Priest mentioned another of 

 a country girl, who, finding one of these animals in a barn, 

 rashly attempted to secure it : the cat wounded her slightly 

 in the leg, and for six months she was unable to use the 

 limb. 



When the unfortunate fox-catcher was leaving us, in return 

 for a trifling donation, he pressed upon me the acceptance of 

 a fine deer-skin which he produced from his wallet. " He 

 had another for the master," he said, " and he would bring 

 it to him, when he returned from the hospital." 



" And pray, my friend, how did you get these skins ?" 



The question puzzled the wounded man. " I found them 

 dead, after the great snow last year." 



