The Heptarchy of the Cats. 53 



anything you like that means profound and gross slumber. 

 A foot or so off it would be lying a piece of meat or a 

 bone. The crows would very soon discover the bone, and 

 collecting round in a circle, would discuss the probabilities 

 of the lynx only shamming, and the chances of stealing his 

 dinner. The animal would take no notice whatever, but lie 

 there looking so limp and dead that at last one crow would 

 make so bold as to come forward. The others let it do so 

 alone, knowing that afterwards there would be a free fight 

 for the plunder, and the thief probably not enjoy it after all. 

 So the delegate would advance with all the caution of a crow 

 — and nothing exceeds it — until within seizing distance. 

 Then it would stop, flirt its wings nervously, stoop, take a last 

 long look at the lynx to make sure that it really was asleep, 

 and then dart like lightning at the bone. But if the crow 

 was as quick as lightning, the lynx was as swift as thought, 

 and lo ! the next instant there was the beast sitting up 

 with the bird in its mouth ! 



Now its procedure was very singular. It knew that it 

 was no use jumping straight at the crow ; it would be 

 sure to miss it, and go under it. So at the moment 

 that the bird darted at the bone, the lynx flashed up 

 into the air, and caught the crow at the instant it had left 

 the ground. 



Next time it had to practise a completely different 

 manoeuvre. The same crows are not to be " humbugged " 

 a second time by a repetition of the being-dead trick. So 

 the lynx, when a sufficient number of the birds had 

 assembled, would take the string in its mouth and run 

 round and round the stake at the extreme limit of its tether 

 as if it were tied. The crows, after their impudent fashion, 

 would close in. They thought they knew the exact circum- 

 ference of the animal's circle, and getting as close to the 

 dangerous hne as possible without actually transgressing it, 

 would mock at and abuse the supposed-to-be-tethered brute. 



