504 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



these "varmints" has been known to destroy a whole lit- 

 ter of from eight to ten pigs in a single night. They will 

 steal up to a hog-bed, spring into it, snatch up a pig and 

 make their escape almost before the old sow is aware of 

 their presence. They generally go in pairs— male and 

 female; and where you find one, you may certainly count 

 on the other being near. 



The rutting- season of this Cat is from the middle of 

 December to the middle of January, and they drop their 

 'young— of which there are from three to six^from about 

 the middle to the last of March. During the love-making 

 season, they are not unlike the domestic Thomas and Maria 

 in making night in the woods and hills hideous with their 

 ear-splitting screams and caterwauls. 



The Wildcat is a savage fighter. An old Tom can stand 

 off a whole pack of common dogs, and indeed it takes a 

 very resolute dog to seize and kill one; for while the dog Is 

 worrying him, he is getting in his work on the dog, in a 

 most lively and vigorous manner, with teeth and toe-nails. 

 About this time, one can safely wager that there is some 

 hair flying. 



The most successful method of hunting these animals is 

 to start them up with the Fox-hound, before which they 

 make a good, exciting run of from one to two hours; and in 

 this run they are as cunning to dodge and double as Rey- 

 nard. But when close pressed, they will take to a tree, 

 from which they can easily be shot. 



They are often caught in steel-traps. While residing in 

 Southwest Missouri, I knew a boy who caught eight or ten, 

 during the winter of 1867-68, by building in the woods, with 

 small poles, a pen, in which he placed some old live 

 roosters, and covered the pen so as to protect them. He 

 then placed steel-traps along each side of the outside of the 

 pen. The crowing of the old cocks would attract the 

 attention of any Wildcat that was near, and lure him to 

 the pen; and in his endeavors to get at the chickens, he 

 would get a foot into a trap, and then fair an easy victim to 

 ' ' Bent ' ' Shelton' s old musket in the morning. 



