232 WILD-CATS AT THE ZOO 
own till the present day in the swamps of Asia and 
Africa, and in the immediate neighbourhood of every 
Indian country village or tank, just as the European 
wild-cat did in England till the days of the Tudors. 
The late General Douglas Hamilton, in his journals of 
sport in Southern India, tells a story of the courage 
of this Indian wild-cat, which matches exactly the 
experience of Charles St. John in Sutherlandshire. 
St. John’s terriers had brought a wild-cat to bay under 
a rock, and when he approached, the animal sprang 
straight at his face, and was only stopped by a blow 
from a stick which he had cut before coming up to 
aid the dogs. General Hamilton says of the chaus — • 
64 One of these animals came into our cantonment 
evidently on the prowl for fowls, or anything it could 
pick up ; so we collected all the dogs we could, and 
had a hunt. We came to a long check, the dogs 
being quite at fault. After looking for some time, I 
spied the cat squatting in a hedge, and called for the 
dogs. When they came I knelt down and began 
clapping my hands and cheering them on ; the cat 
suddenly made a clean spring at my face ; I had just 
time to catch it as one would a cricket-ball, and 
giving its ribs a strong squeeze, I threw it to the 
dogs, not, however, before it had made its teeth meet 
in my arm, just above my wrist. For some weeks 
I had to carry my arm in a sling, and I shall carry 
the marks of the bite to my grave.” The chaus is a 
far finer animal even than the European wild-cat. It 
is larger and more powerful, though its proportions 
