SHOOTING THE FELID.E OVER BAITS 61 



the senses of the most wary of the animal creation, 

 and the battle is rather one of wits than a struggle to 

 be won by energy and determination. It is just in 

 reasoning power that the subordinates of the sports- 

 man are likely to fail him, and it is notorious that 

 even the best of them will not do good work under 

 the eye of an employer whom they judge incapable 

 of appreciating their efforts. Wild animals depend 

 for their protection upon their senses of smell, sight, 

 and hearing, and in the cat tribe all of these senses 

 are extremely well-developed. Their sense of smell is 

 not so keen as in dogs and hyaenas, but they are fully 

 capable of nosing their way along a blood trail, and 

 the sportsman sitting over a bait may be perfectly 

 certain that if a whiff of his scent reaches his quarry, 

 his labour will be altogether wasted. As regards 

 their sense of sight, it is widely known that in the 

 cat tribe their power of vision depends almost 

 inversely upon the strength of the light to which 

 their pupil is subjected. Cats probably see best of 

 all by the diffused rays of the moon, and I doubt 

 whether their instincts permit them to pay much 

 attention to really distant objects. However, they are 

 as sensible to the advantages of the blanket of the 

 dark as the most crafty Indian burglar, and it is 

 common experience that during nights of clouds and 

 storm, when the human retina is conscious only of 

 inky blackness, their most audacious attacks will be 



