6 COMMON AMERICAN WILD CAT. 



The Wild Cat pursues his prey with both activity and cunning, sometimes 

 bounding suddenly upon the object of his rapacity, sometimes with steallhy 

 pace, approaching it in the darkness of night, seizing it with his strong retrac- 

 tile claws and sharp teeth, and bearing it off to his retreat in the forest. 



The individual from which our figure was drawn had been caught in a 

 steel-trap, and was brought to us alive. We kept it for several weeks ; 

 it was a fine male, although not the largest we have seen. Like most of 

 the predacious animals, it grew fat in confinement, being regularly fed 

 on the refuse parts of chickens and raw meat, as ■well as on the common 

 browii rat. 



The Bay Ljiix, (as this animal is sometimes called.) is fond of swampy, 

 retired situations, as well as the wooded sides of hills, and is still seen oc- 

 casionally in that portion of the Alleghany mountains, which traverses 

 the States of Pennsylvania and New York. It is abundant in the Cane- 

 brakes, (patches or thickets of the Miegia Macrosperma, of Michaux, which 

 often extend for miles, and are almost impassable,) bordering the lakes, 

 rivers, and lagoons of Carolina, Louisiana, and other Southern and South 

 Western States. This species also inhabits the mountains and the undu- 

 lating or rolling country of the Southern States, and frequents the thickets 

 that generally spring up on deserted cotton plantations, some of which are 

 two or three miles long, and perhaps a mile wide, and afford, from the 

 quantit}- of briars, shrubs, and yomig trees of various kinds which have 

 overgrown them, excellent cover for many quadrupeds and birds. In these 

 bramble-covered old fields, the " Cats" feed chiefly on the rabbits and rats 

 that make their homes in their almost impenetrable and tangled recesses ; 

 and seldom does the cautious Wild Cat voluntarily leave so comfortable 

 and secure a lurking place, except in the breeding season, or to follow in 

 very sultry weather, the dry beds of streams or brooks, to pick up the cat- 

 fish, &c., or cray-fish and frogs that remain in the deep holes of the 

 creeks, during the drought of summer. 



The Wild Cat not only makes great havoc among the chickens, turkeys, 

 and ducks of the planter, but destroys many of the smaller quadrupeds, 

 as well as partridges, and such other birds as he can surprise roosting on 

 the ground. The hunters often run down the Wild Cat with packs of 

 fox-hounds. AVhen hard pressed by fast dogs, and in an open countrj% 

 he ascends a tree with the agility of a squirrel, but the baying of the dogs 

 calling his pursuers to the spot, the unerring rifle brings him to the 

 ground, when, if not mortally wounded, he fights fiercely with the 

 pack until killed. He will, however, when pursued by hunters with 

 hounds, frequently elude both dogs and huntsmen, by an exercise of in- 

 stinct, so closely bordering on reason, that we are bewildered in the at- 



