84 WILD BEASTS OF THE WORLD 



" Rooi-Kat" (Red Cat), it has been found a dangerous antagonist when 

 robbed of its cubs, and in India a famished specimen has been known 

 to make an unprovoked attack on a native. It is, in fact, a thoroughly 

 savage animal, and in menageries its continual grin and snarl are a 

 strange contrast to the usual amiability of the Lynx ; but some Caracals 

 can be made tame enough, and there is one such in the London Zoo- 

 logical Gardens at the time of writing. Here, also, the young have 

 recently been born for the first time in that institution ; the kittens were 

 two in number, and already brown, with black ears like their parents. 



In former times, at all events, the Caracal used to be captured and 

 employed in hunting like the Cheetah ; and a cruel amusement was, and 

 very likely still is, derived from letting a couple loose among a flock of 

 tame Pigeons feeding on the ground, in order to see which could kill 

 the most before they got away. It is said that the almost incredible 

 number of a dozen might be cut down before the flock got clear. 



One curious use of the animal is worth mention : the fur is in any 

 case a handsome one, and the Boers in South Africa are firmly convinced 

 that a rug of Caracal skins is a preventive of rheumatism, and Messrs. 

 Nicholls and Eglington, who mention this, state that the fur even of 

 the dead animal is highly electrical, as that of the living tame Cat is so 

 well known to be. 



