266 OF THE ANIMALS OF CHASE. 



stood almost over his recumbent foe. There was a 

 pause of several seconds, during which they glared 

 upon each other with inconceivable fury, before they 

 closed in the death struggle. The dog seized the 

 cat on the breast, between the fore-legs ; the cat, at 

 the same time, burying his fangs in the shoulder of 

 the dog. Though bitten through and through, he 

 uttered no cry of pain, but pressed down upon the 

 cat nor relaxed his hold until his foe was dead. 

 He killed him l>y dint of pressure; for his tooth 

 had never entered the skin of the cat (nor have I 

 ever witnessed an instance in which, when killed by 

 dogs, their skins have been torn by their teeth.) 

 The instinct which taught the dog to destroy his 

 enemy, ~by pressure, must be deemed not a little 

 remarkable. When the cat was dead, his fangs 

 still remained clinched in the shoulder of the dog : 

 his jaws had to be separated by force, and the vic- 

 tor, released from his gripe, was unable to move, 

 and was taken home on the back of a horse. I 

 need hardly add, that I never suffered this gallant 

 hound a second time to engage single-handed, in so 

 serious a conflict. 



If, in the combat just described, the cat did not 

 aim at the throat or other vital part of his adver- 

 sary, we must ascribe it to accident not to any 

 defective organization ; for I believe this animal to 



