54 ITS CONTESTS WITH THE WILD CAT. 



wood-cat is larger than that of her opponent, and the 

 cat takes up her position so that she shall, if possible, 

 alight upon his head with her full spring and im- 

 petus. To distract her attention, he keeps moving his 

 head from side to side, and if he succeeds in his object, 

 he rushes to close quarters by a side movement. If 

 the spring of the cat takes proper effect, there is a 

 struggle, but not of long duration ; and it is the same 

 with the opposite result, if the cat miss and the marten 

 fasten, during the short pause of exhaustion after the 

 spring. Here we may notice another curious feature 

 in the economy of all the feline race. It has been 

 remarked even of the most powerful of them, that if 

 they miss their object when they spring, they sneak 

 cowardly away, and do not return to the attack for 

 some time, if, indeed, they return at all. Now the fact 

 is, that it is not cowardice, but exhaustion. The gnash- 

 ing with the teeth and the talons seems to be the re- 

 action by which the motion of the spring is balanced, 

 and the tone of the animal kept up ; and if it fail in that, 

 it takes a while to recover the use of its springing 

 niuscles. Probably the violence both of the spring 

 and the exhaustion are connected in some way or 

 other with the electric state of the body; but that is a 

 point not easily to be settled. Should both miss, the 

 contest is renewed, and seldom, in the observed cases, 

 (which are not indeed very numerous,) given up until 

 the one be killed ; and in a protracted contest, the 

 marten is always the victor, as the cat is first exhausted 

 by the greater weight of her body, and the violence of 

 her leaps. In the year 1805, a gentleman, on whose 

 veracity we can depend, witnessed one of those com- 



