254 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



in traps ; but they are generally too wary to be 

 approached — and hunting only by night, during the 

 day they sleep in their dens, and are rarely met abroad. 



Some estimate of their numbers may be formed 

 from the circumstance of five males having been killed 

 in a herdsman's out-house which joined the warren. 

 They had been attracted there by one of their own 

 species, and the noise having alarmed the peasant, he 

 guessed the cause, and cautiously managed to stop the 

 hole, by which they gained entrance, with a turf-cleave. 

 Knowing the value of the capture, he kept guard upon 

 the prisoners till morning, and then despatched infor- 

 mation to the Lodge. My cousin, with his followers, 

 promptly repaired to the place, and, surrounding the 

 barn with guns and greyhounds, bolted the wild cats 

 successively, until the whole number were despatched. 

 This chasse was not only novel, but profitable. After 

 the death of their persecutors, the rabbits increased 

 prodigiously, but fears are entertained that these 

 destructive animals are become once more abundant in 

 the sand-banks. 



When the dressings were removed, we found that the 

 poor lad had been so much injured, that apprehension of 

 lock-jaw induced us to send him directly to the infirmary. 

 There is a belief, and one more reasonable than many 

 popular opinions in Ballycroy, that a wild-cat's bite is 

 particularly venomous. My cousin remembers a case 

 which terminated fatally with a servant of his father's ; 

 and the Priest mentioned another of a country girl, who, 

 finding one of these animals in a barn, rashly attempted 

 to secure it : the cat wounded her slightly in the leg, 

 and for six months she was unable to use the limb. 



When the unfortunate fox-catcher was leaving us, in 



