90 MARVELS OF THE ANIMAL WORLD 



natives in certain parts of India for the purpose of 

 hunting other animals, and in common with the 

 hunting-leopard it holds the distinction of being 

 one of the few species of mammals which are found 

 both in Africa and India. When fully grown it 

 attains to a total measurement of about three feet, 

 of which the tail accounts for some nine or ten 

 inches. Although somewhat variable in colour, as 

 a rule, however, its fur is of an almost uniform 

 reddish-brown tint, whilst its ears are furnished 

 with long tufts of black hair. It is extremely 

 active and feeds upon gazelles and deer, as well as 

 upon various species of birds. When pursuing the 

 latter the creature will sometimes spring upwards 

 for a distance of as much as two yards from the 

 ground, and then strike down its prey in mid -air. 

 In a wild state caracals are of a very savage dis- 

 position, but the natives of India appear to have 

 little trouble in taming and training them. A 

 favourite pastime is to let a pair of the animals 

 loose amidst a flock of domestic pigeons which are 

 feeding upon the ground in order to see how many 

 of the birds they can manage to knock down before 

 their unsuspecting prey can fly away to safety. 



Some idea of the agility of the felines may be 

 gathered by mentioning that they may succeed 

 in bringing down as many as a score of the feathered 

 folk during the lapse of a few seconds. 



It appears that the Egyptian cat was also tamed 

 and used for the capture of waterfowl, for an old 

 picture in the British Museum shows one of the 

 creatures being thus employed with a captive 



