342 THE WILD CAT. 



in the hind-quarters, but in the case of the domestic 

 cat and of the wild cat it is for a different reason. 

 In a dog-fight it is the top dog that comes off 

 best ; the dog at the bottom is at the mercy of the 

 whole of the community, and at once becomes the 

 common sport of all. In a cat-fight, however, it 

 is the bottom cat that holds the ' upper hand,' and 

 woe betide the one on top when those awful hind- 

 claws get to work with their rending, tread-mill 

 action ! A cat's main idea in a close fight is to 

 roll on to its back, and, holding tightly to its victim 

 with foreclaws and tusks, set its deadly hind-legs 

 to work with terrible effect. It is a devilish, 

 cattish way of fighting, but one which is, never- 

 theless, truly efficacious, for in this way a cat, wild 

 or tame, will completely disembowel an opponent 

 larger than itself. 



FOOD. 



It has been said that the wild cat is of arboreal 

 habits ; and, undoubtedly, a great deal of its prey 

 is caught in the timber. It catches and kills 

 squirrels by cautiously stalking them ; then, waiting 

 with the unrelenting patience of the cat tribe till 

 the squirrel has no easy way of retreat, the wild 

 cat bounds out a paralysing vision of thrashing 

 claws and barred and bristling fur ! That it feeds 

 largely on squirrels, where they are plentiful, is 

 known ; but probably its methods of hunting them 

 are quite different from those of the marten. I have 

 known a tame(?) cat to catch squirrels by waiting 

 till they descended to the ground, then surprising 

 them either from above or by a tremendous leap 

 across the open. A cat leaps so lightly and easily 

 that the observer obtains no impression as to the 

 speed at which it travels, but its great quickness 



