WHAT A CAT MAY KILL 268 



coverts. Each night some of the hares go out, never 

 to return. Hunting must be curtailed in self-defence. 

 Then again, neighbours may be shooting, and it is 

 very certain that what goes into your neighbour's bag 

 cannot go into yours. The best compromise between 

 shooting in woods still leafy and waiting for the 

 sporting Christmas pheasant to soar far above the 

 tops of the bare trees, is to shoot " cocks only " at 

 the first covert shoots. This may be a perplexing 

 plan to those not accustomed to it either they in- 

 clude a good many hens, or they let off a good many 

 cocks which they mistake for hens. It is a plan to 

 make the nervous man shoot his worst. And the 

 keeper, as a rule, will not be found to favour it, unless 

 the guns are discriminating and good, and appreciate 

 sport more than bag. But sooner or later the 

 day of " cocks only " must come why should it not 

 come at the beginning and be done with ? 



A strange confession was made by a cat-lover con- 

 cerning the cat of her fireside. The confession was 



made publicly ; in fact, in the columns of an 

 What a obscure local paper. It was to the effect 

 kill ^at the cat had brought in to her kittens, 



in one week, twenty-six field-mice, nine- 

 teen rabbits, ten moles, seven young birds, and 

 two squirrels all of which passed through her 

 mistress's hands ; there may have been others not 

 taken account of. It never seemed to enter the head 



