WILD CATS. 



253 



came out severely torn, and, assisted by a shepherd- 

 boy, he laid rabbit-nets round the den, commenced 

 ^iggirigj arid, before he had proceeded far, a cat of 

 immense size bolted. She was breaking through the 

 rabbit-net, when the chasseur^ with more gallantry than 

 prudence, seized her by the neck. The fierce animal 

 instantly attacked him in turn, and, fastening upon 

 his hands with teeth and talons, held her desperate 

 grasp until the boy, with the edge of the spade, broke 

 her back. They brought the dead beast along with them ; 

 it was of a dirty gray colour, double the size of the 

 common house-cat, and its teeth and claws more than 

 proportionately larger. 



These animals, fortunately, are scarce, and generally 

 frequent the neighbourhood of rabbit-warrens, where 

 they prove amazingly destructive. Hennessey, two 

 winters since, discovered a den in a cleft of a rock upon 

 the shore, and adjoining the sand-banks, which are 

 numerously stocked with rabbits. It cost him immense 

 trouble to penetrate to the form, where he killed a male 

 and female wild-cat, the latter being large with young. 

 Hennessey's patience and ingenuity were sorely taxed 

 to effect their destruction, having been obliged to resort 

 to gunpowder, and blow up a large portion of the rock, 

 before he could dislodge his dangerous game. In 

 size and colour they were precisely similar to the animal 

 killed in the mountain by the fox-catcher ; and had they 

 been permitted to continue their species, in a very short 

 time the adjacent burrow would have been devastated. 



Besides this large and ferocious species, the warrens 

 upon the coast suffer much from the common cat becom- 

 ing wild, and burrowing in the rabbit-holes. They are 

 sometimes surprised and shot in the sand-banks, or taken 



