The cat, it has been discovered in America, has great skill as a hunting animal, and is in many respects more useful for that purpose than the dog. Days cannot climb trees to haut birds, whereas cats find no difficulty in following game from branch to branch.
New York Times mentions that there is a hunter in Maine who employs a cat only for sporting purposes. He goes forth with nothing but a game-bag and with his faithful and accomplished eat trotting by his side. When he reaches a forest where the squirrels abound the cat hunts eagerly, with its nose on the ound, until it scents a squirrel. Following it to the tree where the squirrel make: home, the cat nimbly climbs the tree and the game. Sometimes there is a brisk 'The squirrel leaps from tree to tree, followed closely by the cat; but ina short time is overtaken and seized.' Sometimes the squirrel takes refuge in a hole, in which case the cat sits by the hole until the squirrel, thinking the danger is past, puts his head out and is caught. The cat also acts as a retriever, bringing the captured game to its master; and in the course of a day's hunting, if the sky is overcast and the squirrels ris freely, the hunter usually fills his game-with fifty or sixty fine dog could rival the suc ce: of this cat, and in fact it isa very rare thing for a dog to catch even a single squirrel, The New York Times thinks that the cat will ultimately supersede the dog as an assistant to sportsmen, A correspondent, writing on the subject to the Standard, in a village where I formerly resided I bad an aged cottager for a neighbour, whose garden was separated from by a lower wall than I approved 1 the fruit season, I frequently heard, when in my garden, the discharge of firearms in the direction of the orchard; but attached no importance to the circumetauce, thinking it was my neighbour's way of p venting the depredations of small birds on his crops. In the course of Lime it becrime known to me that the old man had little or no regular employment. Generally, when I entered the orchard, if he happened to be in his garden, he was to be soon hanging about the low boundary wall, I also became aware that he expended his ammunition in the destruction of blackbirds and thrashes that resorted to the cover the orchard afforded; and I concluded that the birds that fell to hi found their way. into the possession of the sportsman. Thoro appeared to be no doubt that to possess him. self of them he must commit a tr Accordingly I looked for, but could find, evidence of trespass; and I failed to understand how in the long grass, which was Juxuriaut than ly usual in orchards stock is kept, he contrived to secure his quarry. Tt maybe also mentioned that T never found a dead bird; although I made frequent search, and this circumstance caused, further mystification, The old man's manner of proceeding was discovered by my son, He had trained a cat to perform the duties of a refri Pass would spring from her sheltered position on the wall, and in a 9 of bounds approach the spot ween the bird Lall, seize it, and bring it to her master.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.