SPAIN 321 



of Toledo. Though wary as a rule and difficult to approach, wild 



cats seem subject to sudden fits of unaccountable stupidity, and 



I recollect a case in point that is perhaps worth quoting. We were 



on our way to take our place in a boar drive in the Sierra Morena, 



when I spied a large wild cat seated in a dead tree and raised my 



gun to shoot it. The head keeper remonstrated, however, saying 



that the report of a gun so near the beat might alarm the boar 



and spoil sport, but he assured me that I could shoot the cat on 



the way home. At the same time he tied his handkerchief round 



the tree, not far from the ground, and, incredible as it may appear, 



the cat did not dare to pass the handkerchief and was shot four 



or five hours later. 



Wolves are plentiful throughout the country and do a good deal 



of damage in cold winters, though they do not appear to hunt in 



such laro;e packs as in Russia. They generally lie low 



^ ^ . . Wolf. 



in the most inaccessible parts of the hilly districts and 



are difficult to get at, but their daring is occasionally remarkable. 

 I have, for example, known wolves in the province of Segovia, 

 even in July, approach within a hundred yards of a house and 

 kill three sheep, and this in spite of the mastiffs specially armed 

 with spiked collars as a protection against these marauders. Occa- 

 sionally in the big beats for boar and stag, in Estremadura and 

 Andalusia, one gets a shot at a slinking wolf, but not very often. 

 The late king was once returning from a shooting expedition in 

 the forest of Valsain (Segovia), when, to his surprise, one of the 

 keepers fired on what he thought was a dog, which proved, however, 

 to be a young wolf that had followed the other dogs. There is, 



