6 
WILD CAT. 
Chalcraft, once liad the extraordinary luck to trap a Wild 
Cat, the rarest of British quadrupeds: not an old Tom 
turned poacher, as some of my readers will at once con- 
clude, but a true, genuine, wild cat. And here let me say 
that there is not more difference between a Newfoundland 
dog and a cur fox, — between a red deer and a roebuck, — 
between a barn-door hen and a hen pheasant, — than 
between the ferocious tiger of our woods and the purring 
mouser of our hearths. Clialcraft brought his prize in 
triumph to Hatch, so long the residence of Mr. Waring 
Kidd : but poor Waring was ' hors de combat,' — regu- 
larly on the sick list, he was often ailing, — and he had not 
nerve enough to undertake the embalming and preserva- 
tion of so vast a beast. Clialcraft was sadly disappointed, 
but solaced himself by making a fur cap of the skin, which 
he wears on great occasions to this day. Out-lying tabbies 
are not uncommon, and destroy lots of young pheasants, 
but this is the only instance within my knowledge of the 
capture of a real wild cat. 
From time immemorial Black Grous have inhabited 
Hindliead. This noble bird usually prefers wet swampy 
places : I have known a pointer, when up to his knees in 
water, stand at a ' black cock : ' but occasionally, especially 
towards August, the black grous get upon the brows of 
the hills, and then is the time when they are principally 
sought after by sportsmen. It has always been a riddle to 
me that Gilbert White should speak of the black cock as 
extinct. I can truly say with him, " When I was a Httle 
boy, a black cock used to come now and then to my fa- 
ther's table." But this is not all ; the sportsmen here kill 
them every year. I believe Mr. Wheeler and some of the 
Paynes go out regularly on the 12th of August, and always 
