THE MAMMALS OF SHAKSPEARE.
By Henry Reeks, F.L.S., F.Z.S.
(Continued from p. 173.)
The Wild Cat, Felis catus.
Although once abundant in our woods and forests the Wild Cat is now nearly extinct, the few which still survive being confined to the mountainous parts of Scotland and North of England. This is as it should be: we can quite dispense with this rapacious feline in our well-kept and well -stocked woods in the South. A few weeks since a writer in 'The Field' mentioned that he had seen some old paintings or prints of "Hunting the Wild Cat"; but I imagine that it was never considered "royal" sport, otherwise it would for a certainty have been attended to by Shakspeare, who was apparently well acquainted with the habits of the animal. In allusion to its preying by night and sleeping by day, he makes Shylock say—
" He sleeps by day
More than the Wild Cat."
Merchant of Venice. Act ii., Scene 5.
When roused to fury perhaps no animal of its size is comparable to the Wild Cat for pluck and savageness. Mr. St. John, in his 'Highland Sports,' gives an interesting account of a fight with one of these savage brutes, which sprang straight at his face wheu six or seven yards distant, and had he not struck her in mid-air she would certainly have done him some serious injury. Mr. St. John adds that "if a tame cat has nine lives a wild one must have a dozen"!
In Taming of the Shrew, Act ii., Scene 1, Shakspeare makes Petruchio say—
"Thou must be married to no man but me;
For I am he am born to tame you, Kate;
And bring you from a Wild Cat to a Kate
Conformable, as other household Kates."
The Lynx, Lyncus virgatus.
The Pard, or Mountain Cat, is frequently mentioned by Shakspeare, but I know not to what animal the poet refers, unless it be
