8o AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



tackle a bobcat by himself, Shorty, a heavy, formidable 

 dog, of unflinching courage and great physical strength, 

 was altogether too much for any bobcat. When we 

 reached the place we found the bobcat in the top of a 

 pinyon, and Shorty steadily working his way up through 

 the branches and very near the quarry. Evidently the 

 bobcat felt that the situation needed the taking of desper- 

 ate chances, and just before Shorty reached it out it 

 jumped, Shorty yelling with excitement as he plunged 

 down through the branches after it. But the cat did not 

 jump far enough. One of the hounds seized it by the 

 hind leg and in another second everything was over. 



Shorty was always the first of the pack to attack dan- 

 gerous game, and in attacking bear or cougar even Badge 

 was much less reckless and more wary. In consequence, 

 Shorty was seamed over with scars; most of them from 

 bobcats, but one or two from cougars. He could speedily 

 kill a bobcat single-handed; for these small lynxes are not 

 really formidable fighters, although they will lacerate a 

 dog quite severely. Shorty found a badger a much more 

 difficult antagonist than a bobcat. A bobcat in a hole 

 makes a hard fight, however. On this hunt we once got 

 a bobcat under a big rock, and Jake's Rowdy in trying to 

 reach it got so badly mauled that he had to join the 

 invalid class for several days. 



The bobcat we killed this first day was a male, weigh- 

 ing twenty-five pounds. It was too late to try after the 

 bear, especially as we had only ten or a dozen dogs out, 

 while the bear's tracks showed it to be a big one; and 

 we rode back to camp. 



