254 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



catus was the original founder of our domestic 

 race.* 



Gamekeepers need not be told that a more in- 

 corrigible poacher does not exist than a common 

 cat which has been bred in the woods, or which, 

 although originally an efficient mouser and a 

 useful occupant of the barn, has gradually ac- 

 quired the habits of a vagrant. The strength and 

 size which a male cat will sometimes attain under 

 such circumstances is extraordinary although he 

 never arrives at the proportions of his irreclaim- 

 able congener. 



In the parish of Bignor in West Sussex, there 

 lives a cottager whose thrifty housewife possesses 

 a valuable ally in the person of a gigantic tom-cat. 

 The most efficient of foragers is he, and ' many a 

 time and oft* have his poaching expeditions pro- 

 tracted the too lavish expenditure of the treasures 

 of the pork- tub. His ordinary victims are half- 

 grown rabbits, which he captures in the dusk of 

 the evening, and which he invariably conveys in 

 retriever fashion to the residence of his owner. 

 It is only marvellous how he has hitherto escaped 

 the snares and traps of a neighbouring keeper 

 one of the wiliest of his calling. However, his 

 foraging expeditions have as yet, I believe, 



* For some interesting particulars on this subject, see 

 ( Bell's British Quadrupeds.' 



