WILD BEASTS OF GREAT BRITAIN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2289, 13 January 1898, Page 50

WILD BEASTS OF GREAT BRITAIN.

Genuine wild beasts, too — not mice, rabbits, ox other insects, which may be said to be wild beasts in one sense. But Great Britain contains thousands of roaming brutes peculiar to the country, some of which could do a man nearly as much damage as a panther or a email-sized bear.

First, cruellest, and most dangerous is the Wild cat. You thongbt he was extinct 1 But iis is a good deal more common than people suppose, as many a suffering farmer could tell you. In the wilder and healthier parts of Britain, especially in the Western Highlands of Scotland, and even a great deal nearer home, wild cats roam the hills and slay right and left. They do not attack human beings unless pursued, of course, and most of their ted deeds are done among lambs and poultry. But the man who attacks a wild cat, or even crosses the path of an aagry one, will never forget it, and he's likely to carry tbs marks to his grave. No one can avoid

THE SWIFT, CURVING SPRING OF THIS CBBATUHE,

and if it gets hold of a man's throat, the victim is likely enough to be killed on the spot. lam personally acquainted with more than one crofter of West Scotland who has been terribly maaled by a wild cat. One would think, in one case, that the man had at laast been handled by a tiger.

Wi hout a gun nothing can be done in the way of extirpating them, and the crofters are too poor as a rule to possess one ; no sane being would attack a wild cat with a stick. Traps for wild cats are very big and strong, shaped on the old steel j iwed rat-trap model, and baited with a chicken ; but the brutes are very cunnisig, and it is a cleverly set trap that will take one. Even then the victim often pulls loose and hobbles off, leaving a leg or so in the gin's teeth. It is ia the time of year when the wild cats breed that they are best pursued ; but the difficulties are increased in one way, for a female wild cat with a litter of cube to defend is about as unpleasant an enemy as anyone conld well face. Sill, if the lair can be found and the youngsters carried off and sold to a travelling show profit and usefulness are combined. Ano'-her wild beast of Britain is the badger. If let alone, the badger is AN INTERESTING AND VESY INNOCENT BEAST. He burrows in gravel soil, and lives quietly, sallying forth at night to dig for roots. He is commoner than the wild cafe, and within a few miles oE London, if people only knew it, he lives and dies and digs in his unassuming way in the thick of the beech and pine woods. Surrey, Middlesex, and Kent all contain their share of badger=, though there is probably no county in Britain where he does not exist. He shambles out when the moon rises, and goes back to his den before daybreak, to sleep the lighter hours away, for he is* of gloomy disposition.

Badgers always keep to themselves, and do not reqnire a whole country to live in and devastate, like the wild cat, or call down curses from the angry farmers whose stock is laid low in a night. Nuts and fruit are food for badgers in the autumn, and when wiater, begins to grip the land all badgers comfortably curl up and sleep till the spring breaks out again. Wild cats do not do this. Occasionally one hears of a badger being shot, or more often dug out of his burrow and made to fight with any dogs that can ba brought to face him. This he is always ready to do. when obliged, and fearfully savage battles are sometimes waged. The badger is generally put ia a barrel, and the dog or dogs sst to draw him out, and, though a dog or so is usually killed, the badger is assailed with dogs till he succumbs. A v )oat 30 or 40 badgers are killed every ysar in the Briti&h Isles, but there are plenty left; and it will probably be long before the last badger of Britain goes to his forefathers.

Otters are pretty common everywhere where enough fish-stocked water is available, and are very wild beasts indeed. Here again, unless you are a skilled otter hunter, aiid can pick one up by the tail with impunity, do not touch a live otter. He has terrifically powerful jaws, and is able to crush a man's arm with ease if such a proceeding eeems good to him. Many a man has died, too, from loss of blood occasioned by

THE BITE OF AN ANGBY OTTEB, and those savage faegs, made to hold a slippery salmon of almost any weight, sometimes poison a wound, for the otter seems not to be a particularly clean animsl. Of course a poisonous bite is cot much against his character for cleanliness ; rabbits are clean enough, bat they may bestow a bite that will produce blood-poisoning at times.

Otters do not live entirelj on fish, as most people suppose, but spend a good deal of time hunting among rushes for moorhens, coots, and the young of wild duck. The average otter prefers wildfowl to a plain fish diet, and great is the havoc among waterfowl where a family of healths- otters take up their abode. These animals fight a good deal among themselves at times, and naturally keepers of private trout and salmon fishings are down upon them to the best of their ability. There ia no fish poacher so destructive as the otter, and the amount of fish consumed by a family of the sleek little swimmers is extraordinary. In a good many counties — Norfolk and Devon particularly — otters give capital sport to those active enough to follow a pack of otterhounds on foot. The huntsman first in at the death " tsiiJs " the ottsr — picks him up by the tail — and this is a feat which takes a little practice. It ia easier to manage, however, when the otter is exhausted by a long run, or rather swim, than with a fresh bea3t — in fact, ifc would be impossible in the case of the latter. Otters, too, have been known to assail farmyards and kill fowls in hard times ; but they are not nearly so de-tructive or annoying as wild cats, though they are much commoner in all parts of the country.

THE POLECAT is not very Imposing as far as bsz3 goes, but he is emphatically a "wild beast" in all senses of the word. Bloodthirsty and savage to the last degree, he is not to be handled while alive. About the size of a large kitten drawn out very long is he, and many a gutted hen roost witnesses bis wickedness when he goes out to slay. His bite is usually poisonous too, and he is generally bated and feared wherever he is to be found; fortunately he is not common anywhere. Imagine a very large, active ferret, of a dark-brown colour, and you have the polecat in your mind's eye. Game of all kinds have a bad time of it in his neighbourhood, and as be carries a glaud of offensive liquid— after the manner of the ekunk — in addition to his powerful jaws, he ia little interfered with, except by keepers. He can bo trapped, and, in fact, generally is trapped whenever he makes himself known. Eggs are irresistible bait to biro, and his end is generally a gibbeting on the keeper's " vermin-tree."

First cousin to the polecat is the marten, three-fourths larger and stronger, but scarcely as fierce. Still, do not meddle with a marten if you should meet one anywhere, or you may live to regret it sadly. There are two kinda of this particular beast — the common marten and the pine marten ; but the latter is said to be extinct. Do not credit this too much, however — not that it concerns the ordinary man very greatly. Neither is common; but the ordinary marten still' lives in our woods, and commits many red deeds fxom isar'a end to jrear'a end.