Tame Gats Turning Wild. 147 



rare in the valley of tlie Wye. A case has just come 

 under my observation of one thus voluntarily abandoning 

 house and home for a permanent residence suh jove, and 

 a life, if not merrier, more congenial to its feline nature, 

 under the greenwood tree. The animal in question — a 

 male, by the way — belonged to a near neighbour, whose 

 house stands contiguous to the borders of Penyard Wood ; 

 and it was to this last that Tom betook himself. For 

 a time after his being missed it was supposed he had got 

 caught in a trap, or shot by some keeper. After awhile, 

 however, he was seen wandering through the wood, or 

 rather skulking about, his movements showing no sign 

 that he considered himself strayed or lost. Instead, he 

 appeared as much at home among the trees as though he 

 had never been outside standing timber, and all attempts 

 to capture, with a view of returning him to his owner, 

 were foiled by his immediate flight and retreat to the 

 most inaccessible fastnesses of the wood. He had, in 

 fact, become wild as its wildest denizen, and as shy of 

 man's presence as either badger or fox. For four years 

 he continued to live this free forest life, and doubtless 

 would have done so to the end of his days — indeed, did 

 till their end — which was a tragical one, as his life 

 terminated by his getting caught in a trap that had been 

 set for "vermin ■" of a very different kind. So fierce and 

 full of fight was he when approached in the trap, that it 

 was found necessary to kill him ere he could be released. 

 A circumstance connected with this incident is worthy 

 of consideration by the naturalist. In its wild condition 

 the animal had undergone a physical change quite as 

 great as that which had come over it morally. It had 

 grown more than double its former size in the domestic 

 state, thus contradicting the usually accepted doctrine 



