(WILD) CAT AND ITS NATURE 71 



to make him abide, for a greyhound could sooner 

 take and hold fast and more steadfastly a wolf 

 than he could one of them. For he claws as a 

 leopard and furthermore bites right (hard). Men 

 hunt them but seldom, but if the hounds find 

 peradventure such a cat, he would not be long 

 hunted for soon he putteth him to his defence or 

 he runneth up a tree. And because he flieth not 

 long therefore shall I speak but little of his 

 hunting, for in hunting him there is no need of 

 great mastery. They bear their kittens and are 

 in their love as other cats, save that they have 

 but two kittens at once. They dwell in hollow 

 trees and there they make their ligging^ and their 

 beds of ferns and of grass. The cat helpeth as 

 badly to nourish his kittens as the wolf doth his 

 whelps. Of common wild cats I need not to speak 

 much, for every hunter in England knoweth them, 

 and their falseness and malice are well known. But 

 one thing I dare well say that if any beast hath the 

 devil's spirit in him, without doubt it is the cat, 

 both the wild and the tame. 



^ Bed or resting-place. See Appendix. 



