The Arizona sentinel. [volume] (Arizona City [Yuma], Yuma County, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1872-1911, 1889-04-06
HUNTING THE WILD CAT
The Terror to a Pack, Its Habits
and Fighting Qualities.
The FcxhOund the Best Dog for Hunting
the Fierce Feiine-The Ethics of
the Hunt-HOw to Dress
Its Skin.


ket value of only $1.25 or 81. 80, it not
ranking so high as its cousin, the lynx,
with which many people confuse it.
Wildcat fur is used to some extent as
Il trimming for garments, and occa-
sionally young lady's muff is made of
it, but it has never received the stamp
of fashion as a fur. A wildcat sleigh
robe can be made very stylish affair.
wildcat rug, representing simply
the dressed skin, with the head and
claws left on, and not mounted on an
absurd red and green cloth to take all
the tone out of its cOlors, is beauti-
full ornament for a room, and one that
is becoming fashionable. For fall or
winter robe for baby carriage, moth
ing is more beautiful than a perfect
wildcat skin, with its tawny reds, its
creamy whites, its black-tipped ears
and big black polka dots on legs and
TANKS. This IS especially true if the
baby is a blonde.
A great many people do not know
what a wild cat is, in spite of the
TACT that this animal is or was, ma
tive to almost all the timbered or
mountainous portions of the country.
The lynx has longer fur than the wild
cat, and has also a considerable tuft
of hair at the ends of its ears, which
the wild cat has not. The lynx is
rather a more northern animal than the
wild cat The little spotted cat known
in Texas and Northern Mexico as the
leopard cat is sometimes called the
wild cat The former animal is alto
gether different. Its coat resembles
that of the leopard, except that the
black spots are not quite so large, and
its tail is fully eighteen inches long.
The main body-color of the wild cat is
a solid rufous Its tail is just barely
long enough to take hold OF.
The wild cat is carniverous, and,
since it must live on animals younger
than itself, it is patient and persist
ent hunter. Any one who has seen a
domestic cat lie in wait fer a rat, make
a creep upon a flock of sparrows, or
climb tree for a robins nest, may
have good idea of the way in which
the wild cat captures the squirrels,
rabbits or birds, which form a great
part of its subsistence. A poisoned
carcass will sometimes have
wild cat by it and poisoned offal will
be yet more apt to be eaten by it. In
common with many other wild animals,
the wild cat has great habit of fol-
lowing a path or trail Very often the
trapper, who leaves a freshly-baited
trap in the snow behind him, will catch
a wild cat which has been sneaking
along behind upon his track. Some
times in the winter a wild cat will thus
follow upon the trail of a deer, SEEM
ingly upon the chance that something
may turn up to kill the deer.
On account of the inaccessibility of
the country it usually inhabits, and on
account of its own nocturnal manner of
life, the wild cat is hardly strictly to
be called an animal suitable for sport.
yet under proper circumstances no an
imal affords better sport. Of course
it can be trapped, but that is not sport;
of course, too, one may occasionally
have a chance shot at it with the rife,
though that is an infrequent occur
renee. The best and only sportsman
like way to hunt the wild cat is with
trailing hounds.
The proper dog for this sort of hunt
ing is the foxhosnd or a cross between
the foxhound anu bloodhound. There
should be a tinge. of savageness in him,
and he should scOrn TO trail any game
less than that in question, despising all
size trails, not noticing even the fresh
trail of deer The big black-and-
tans or pepper-and-salt bear dogs,
found in Texas, are the best wildcat
dogs. These give tongue savagcly,
yet withal melodiously, and run until
they tree their game if it be all week.
There should be at.least two trailing
hounds; the more the more music and
the more fun. 1t would hardly be
right, however, to hunt so large and
fierce an animal as the wild cat with
but two dogs, as the latter would in
that case be badly cut up, even though
they killed their game, as they doubt
less would if bred right.