THE WILD CAT 



but it also kills larger animals, such as pheasants, hares, rabbits, and squirrels, while 

 it occasionally ventures to attack the fawns of roe-deer and red deer, springing on 

 their backs, and tearing open the arteries of the neck. There is an old monkish 

 Latin line that " catus amat pisces, sed non vult tingere plant as " (the cat loves fish, 

 but does not like to wet its feet) ; but this applies only to the domesticated breed, 

 for when dwelling near streams or lakes the wild cat will capture both fishes and 

 water-fowl. Like many other animals, it will often kill more than it can devour, as 

 if from the very love of slaughter. 



The male and female live together only during the pairing-season, and while 

 the kittens are unable to look after themselves. At other times each individual has 

 its own particular haunt, from which, however, it makes long excursions into the 

 surrounding forest or the neighbouring plains ; such foraging expeditions often 

 lasting for days together. In winter it frequently deserts the forest to take up its 

 abode in old uninhabited buildings or other safe places of refuge. 



In some sheltered situation the female gives birth in spring to five or six 

 kittens, very similar to those of domesticated cats, and likewise born blind. 



When captured, wild cats, whether old or young, are impossible to tame ; 

 and it is for this reason that the species is so seldom seen in menageries. As 

 already mentioned, it has been suggested that many of the cats found wild in Scot- 

 land are hybrids between the wild species and the tame breed, but there is no 

 evidence that such interbreeding takes place ; and such of these animals as are not 

 true wild cats seem to be individuals of the domesticated breed which have reverted 

 to the wild state, and have thereby assumed to some extent the characters of the 

 ancestral type. 



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