Alimanas 339 



in front. A fox will often appear so deep in thought as to be 

 absolutely thunderstruck when he finds himself face to face with 

 a gun at six yards distance. In direst consternation he fairly 

 bounds around, describing a complete circle of fur ; whereas a cat 

 in like circumstance merely deflects her course with coolest 

 deliberation and never a sign of alarm or increase of speed. But 

 within six more yards she will have vanished from view — covert 

 or none. Adepts all are the cats, alike in appearing one knows 

 not whence, and in disappearing one knows not how. 



Yonder goes a fox, slowly trotting along below the crest, in 

 his self-sufficient, nonchalant style. His upstanding fur, long 

 bushy brush, and swollen neck appear to double his bulk and lend 

 him quite an imposing figure. But let a rifle-ball sing past his 

 ears or dash up a cloud of the sand below^ — wdiat a transformation ! 

 One hardly now recognises the long lean streak that whips up 

 and over the ridge. 



A handsome trophy is the Spanish lynx, especially those 

 more brightly coloured examples sparsely spotted with big black 

 splotches arranged, more or less, in interrupted lines. The ear- 

 tufts — indeed in adults the extreme tips of the ears themselves — 

 point inwards and backwards; and the narrow irides are pale 

 yellow (between lemon and hazel), the pupil being full, round, and 

 black, nearly filling the circle. In the wild-cat the pupil is a thin 

 upright, set in a cruel pale-green iris. 



We have tried fire as a means of securing^ the smaller 

 alimanas, such as mongoose, but it is seldom a thicket or mancha 

 can be so completely isolated as to leave no line of escape. The 

 animals, moreover, are astute enough to retire under cover of 

 the clouds of smoke that roll away to leeward. 



2. Long drives, extending over, say, a couple of miles of brush- 

 wood (which may contain half-a-dozen patches of thicker jungle, 

 all separate), give wide scope for skilled fieldcraft and demand 

 no small local knowledge. The first essential is " an eye for a 

 country." There are men to whom this faculty is denied ; some 

 seem incapable of acquiring it. Others, again, appear correctly 

 to diagnose even a difficult country, with its chances, almost at a 

 first experience. The favoured haunts of game, together w^ith 

 their accustomed lines of retreat when disturbed, must be studied. 

 Each day, though engaged on other pursuit, one's eye should be 

 reading those lessons that are written in " spoor," and noting each 



