MALE SERVAL.
The serval is a link between the leopards and tiger-cats, quite large enough to kill the young of the smaller antelopes.
The Common Wild Cat.
The Wild Cat was once fairly common all over England. A curious story, obviously exaggerated, shows that traditions of its ferocity were common at a very early date. The tale is told of the church of Barnborough, in Yorkshire, between Doncaster and Barnsley. It is said that a man and a wild cat met in a wood near and began to fight; that the cat drove the man out of the wood as far as the church, where he took refuge in the porch; and that both the man and cat were so injured that they died. According to Dr. Pearce, the event was formerly commemorated by a rude painting in the church.
Photo by Ottomar Anschütz] [Berlin.
SERVAL CLIMBING.
Note the active, cat-like method of climbing.
Mr. Charles St. John had an experience with a Scotch wild cat very like that which General Douglas Hamilton tells of the jungle-cat. He heard many stories of their attacking and wounding men when trapped or when their escape was cut off, and before long found out that these were true. "I was fishing in a river in Sutherland," he wrote, "and in passing from one pool to another had to climb over some rocky ground. In doing so, I sank almost up to my knees in some rotten heather and moss, almost upon a wild cat which was concealed under it. I was quite as much startled as the cat itself could be, when I saw the wild-looking beast rush so unexpectedly from between my feet, with every hair on her body on end, making her look twice as large as she really was. I had three small Skye terriers with me, which immediately gave chase, and pursued her till she took refuge in a corner of the rocks, where, perched in a kind of recess out of reach of her enemies, she stood with her hair bristled out, spitting and growling like a common cat. Having no weapon with me, I laid down my rod, cut a good-sized stick, and proceeded to dislodge her. As soon as I was within six or seven feet of the place, she sprang straight at my face over the dogs' heads. Had I not struck her in mid-air as she leaped at me, I should probably have received a severe wound. As it was, she fell with her back half broken among the dogs, who with my assistance dispatched her. I never saw an animal fight so desperately, or one which was so difficult to kill. If a tame cat has nine lives, a wild cat must have a dozen. Sometimes one of these animals will take up its residence at no great distance from a house, and, entering the hen-roosts and outbuildings, will carry off fowls in the most audacious manner, or even lambs. Like other vermin, the wild cat haunts the shores of lakes and rivers, and it is therefore easy to know where to set a trap for them. Having caught and killed one of the colony, the rest of them are sure to be taken if the body of their slain relative is left in the same place not far from their usual hunting-ground and surrounded with traps, as every wild cat passing that way will to a certainty come to it."
The wild cat ranges from the far north of Scotland, across Europe and Northern Asia, to the northern slopes of the Himalaya. It has always been known as one of the fiercest and wildest of the cats, large or small. The continual ill-temper of these creatures is remarkable. In the experience of the keepers of menageries there is no other so intractably savage. One presented to the Zoological Gardens by Lord Lilford some eight years ago still snarls and spits at any one who comes near it, even the keeper.