250 IN BERKSHIRE FIELDS 



the road, snarling and spitting, and they could not 

 only hear the bushes crack, but they now and then 

 could see the two lights of the animal's eyes. The 

 warden had no gun, and declares, "It was an un- 

 pleasant five minutes — for my wife, of course!" As 

 soon as they reached the clearing the cat ceased to 

 follow. 



But such an experience in summer is rare indeed. 

 In winter, however, the cats are forced by hunger 

 to prowl farther afield, and even to rob henroosts. 

 Then their tracks are not infrequently to be en- 

 countered, and the trappers and hunters get after 

 them. A few winters ago a man in Mount Wash- 

 ington Township, in the southwestern corner of 

 Massachusetts, was walking with his dog. The 

 dog picked up a fresh trail and set off in full cry. 

 The man, thinking the track that of a fox (he could 

 not have been much of a woodsman), snatched 

 up a heavy club and followed. Presently he heard 

 sounds of a fight just under a ledge below him, and 

 without hesitating he jumped over. He was the 

 most surprised man in the state of Massachusetts 

 when he landed with both feet on the back of a bob- 

 cat. The cat was in process of disposing of the dog, 

 and was rather put out at being thus rudely dis- 

 turbed. It got in one good lacerating blow at the 

 man's leg before a crack on the head with the club 

 stunned it and it could be killed. The proud hunter 

 limped home and had his trophy stuffed, and ex- 

 hibited it in a store window in Great Barrington. 



There was another wildcat in our neighborhood 

 known as "Old Stub." He was caught in a trap, 

 gnawed his foot off, and escaped. The stub healed, 



