48 WILD CAT. Clafs I. 



This animal may be called the BritiJJo tiger ; it is 

 the fiercefl, and moft deftru6live bead we have ; 

 making dreadful havokc among our poultry, lambs, 

 and kids. It inhabits the mod mountainous and 

 and woody parts of thefe iflands, living moftly in 

 trees, and feeding only by night. It multiplies as 

 fail: as our common cats j and often the females of 

 the latter will quit their domeftic mates, and return 

 -home pregnant by the former. 



They are taken either in traps, or by (hooting : in 

 the latter cafe it is very dangerous, only to wound 

 them ! for they will attack the perfon who injured 

 them, and have llrength enough to be no defpicable 

 enemy. Wild cats were formerly reckoned among 

 the beafts of chace ; as appears by a charter of 

 Richard the fecond, to the abbot of Peterhorougb^ 

 giving him leave to hunt the hare, fox, and wild cat : 

 and in much earlier times it was alfo the object of the 

 fportfman's diverfion. 



Felemque minacem 



Arboris in trunco longis prsefigere telis. 



Nemefiani CynegeiicoHy L. 55. 



Genus 



