THE CAT AS WILD ANIMAL.
THE coming international cat show at Paris is to be accompanied by an historical catalogue of the breeds -exhibited. Among these one will probably be absent, the "feral cat," or domestic cat run wild. If it is exhibited the catalogue may be expected to explain how it is that the cat, the most devoted to comfort of all domesticated animals, is also the most ready to abandon civilisation and return to the woods. Any one who notices tame cats hunting must observe how strongly the purely wild instinct survives in these hearth- loving pets. Many male cats voluntarily leave the house and live in the woods. In the females the instinct asserts itself most strongly when the kittens are about to be born. This
tendency is common in most domestic animals, from the bantams or guinea-fowls, which stray away to lay their eggs in nettle-beds and fences, to the female collie dogs, which often disappear and produce a litter among the rocks and heather of the Welsh mountains. As domestic cats are very particular, and sometimes very eccentric in the places which they choose for a nursery, it may be presumed that the "feral cat" also takes pains in the selection of a warm, dry spot for the kittens to be in when blind and helpless. In Helmingham Park, in Suffolk, a stream enters on the side furthest from farms or villages, and runs past a remote and lonely grove of very ancient trees. The park contains a large herd of red-deer, and abounds in all kinds of wild animals and birds without being over- preserved. Consequently it is fall of charm to the naturalist, and probably appeals equally strongly to the taste of the "feral cat" for sport and quiet. Something " whisking " across a cavernous hollow in one of the old elms, a mere shell of a tree with one quarter of its circumference entirely crumbled away, drew attention to the spot. Looking inside the hollow we saw three blind kittens lying on a nest of rotten wood. Behind one of the interior buttresses of the hollow tree the mother cat was squatted as flat as a hare, with her ears laid back upon her skull. We did not disturb her. Another wild litter was bred in a wood-stack near a house. In this case the kittens were of some age before they were discovered, and were quite as savage and unfriendly as if their parents had never known domestication. They never left the wood-stack for a greater distance than a few yards, and before emerging their little wild, suspicious faces might be seen peering out from beneath the faggots, reconnoitring the ground with precocious caution.
Pursuit, escape, and repose are the three normal conditions of the life of any wild, carnivorous animal. In the methods of pursuing its prey, the half-wild cat does not differ greatly from the domestic animal when enjoying a hunt in the garden or shrubberies, except that it seems always aware that it must keep itself concealed from man as well as from +he creatures it intends to capture. But those who have watched either when so engaged will conclude that the tame cat of sporting tendencies, and the " feral cat," which prefers to make a living for itself, has acquired and perpetuated mental powers from its contact with man, which entitle it to the highest place as a reflecting, carnivorous animal. It can think out " a problem involving complex ideas, either at leisure or in a few seconds. and act on its conclusions with the utmost nicety and precision. Two instances of this power of combination of means to ends by the hunting cat will illustrate the deliberate and also the rapid forms of action. The writer watched a large male cat, who in turn was watching sparrows feeding in a court-yard. When disturbed by the opening of a back-door, the sparrows always flew to a beech hedge near. The cat noted this, walked behind the hedge, and waiting opposite to the spot to which the birds generally flew, jumped into the middle of them when they were next disturbed. This was the result of deliberation and calculation. Another cat which was watching sparrows slipped behind a row of paving stones recently taken up as soon as it saw the writer approaching and secured one driven over its head. It saw the probability that the birds would be driven in its direction, and acted on its conclusions in a second.
With such dexterous use of the involuntary service of man, the cat well deserves the epithet of "witty," given to it by old writers. When hunting, certain movements and methods of the cat differ from those of any of the larger felidw. When seeking quadrupeds it waits for its prey, remaining motionless for an hour at a time. As the three species most frequently caaght are mice, rabbits, and rats, the cat's power of remain- ing motionless must exceed that of almost any other creature. Those who have sat close to a rabbit-hole in the hopes that the creature will emerge in time will realise the difficulty of keeping so still and noiseless as to be unheard in the burrow. A cat will creep up a sloping support set against a stack, used by rats as a staircase, and capture a rat every evening from this un- comfortable position. They have been known to kill every young rabbit in a certain burrow near a house for two years in succession, and a pair of squirrels which haunted a garden also lost their young ones every year, owing to the patience of a cat which lay every day near to the foot of a tree frequented
by them. Recently a cat which had taken to moth-catching in the evening was observed to secrete itself in the middle of a
bed of sweet-scented flowers visited by the insects. The "waiting game" is peculiar to the cat. But its resources are by no means limited to this. Its speed for a short distance is very rapid, and after a stalk, conducted much as a cheetah stalks an antelope, it will catch a three-parts grown rabbit in the open. A cat which had lost a
foot was seen to chase and gain on a squirrel crossing a lawn, and birds are as often captured by a rush, made when they are rising from the ground, as pounced upon sitting. The prey is generally seized with the claws, and instantly bitten. It is noticed that scarcely any bird survives after being seized by a cat. The bite is always given under the wing, piercing the lungs, and in the rare cases in which the body is uninjured, the bird usually dies of shock. Cats, large or small, always seem to inflict nervous mischief in a greater degree than does the attack of any other species. Their dislike to water is well known. They will hesitate to cross a muddy road ; but when on hunting bent they take to the water voluntarily. A cat belonging to an inn near Chertaey used frequently to swim over to an osier-bed haunted by birds and rats. It used to slip quietly into the water without wetting its head, and swim with its head held high. Enough has been said to indicate that in pursuit of prey the half-wild cat possibly excels its wild ancestor in thoughtful- ness. In providing for its own protection it has lost some- thing by domestication.
The natural device of the cat when a human enemy is sear is to squat, and remain motionless like a hare. The lynx does exactly the same, and often remains perfectly still when discovered, trusting apparently to the likeness of its fur to its surroundings, The half-wild cat does the same ; and as in a generation or two it usually becomes "tabby-coloured," like a wild cat, this is perhaps an adequate protection. But cats which have themselves run wild are as often as not marked with white. A cat thus marked squatting in a bramble patch is as easily seen as a piece of newspaper, yet seems quite unaware that it is likely to be discovered. When chased by dogs it always takes to a tree. But as a climber the cat is not particularly successful. Like the Indian wild cat, or charts, whose fur resembles the colour of dead grass, it is properly a ground-living animal, and uses its climbing powers mainly as an aid to locomotion.
As cafes poligieus, otherwise the jumping cat, is always an interesting study to inquirers, it may be mentioned that a cat can jump nearly seven feet perpendicular "standing." The extent of its powers of wide jumping are as uncertain as the direction of the jump of its political relation. But no fence ever stops a cat, except wire netting fixed loosely between iron uprights, with no cross-piece, on the top of a wall. This strikes the jumping cat as insecure, and being a cautions animal, it usually goes to another garden.
Previous page
