A little stunted but excellent hound, rejoicing in the name of Ringwood, from his diminutiveness, succeeded in forcing his way into the hole after the cat; in an instant a faint scream was heard, and the little fellow gave symptoms of having caught a tartar. One of the party present stooped down, and running his arm under the dog's body pressed it forward, until he could feel that the cat had got the dog firmly clawed by each shoulder, with its nose in the cat's mouth; in this situation, by pressing the dog firmly under the chest, the two were drawn from the hole. The cat hung on until he discovered that his victim was surrounded by numerous friends, when he let go his cruel hold, the more vigourously to defend himself. Ringwood, though covered with jetting blood, jumped upon the cat, and shook away, as if unharmed in the contest.

Sportsmen, in hunting the cat, provide themselves generally with pistols, not for the purpose of killing the cat, but to annoy it, so that it will desert from the tree, when it has taken to one; sometimes these infantile shooting-irons are left at home, and the cat gets safely lodged out of the reach of sticks, or whatever other missile may be convenient. This is a most provoking affair, dogs and sportsmen lose all patience, and as no expedient suggests itself, the cat escapes for the time. I once knew of a cat thus perched out of reach, that was brought to terms in a very singular manner. The tree on which the animal was lodged being a very high one, secure from interruption, it looked

down upon its pursuers with the most provoking complacency.

Every effort to dislodge it had failed, and the hunt was about to be abandoned in despair, when one of the sportsmen discovered a grape-vine that passed directly over the cat's body, and on running his eye along its circumvolutions, traced it down to the ground; a judicious jerk at the vine touched the cat on the rump; this was most unexpected, and it instantly leaped to the ground, from a height of over forty feet, striking on its forepaws, throwing a sort of rough somerset, and then starting off as sound in limb and wind as if he had leaped off a "huckleberry" bush.

The hunter of the wild turkey, while "calling," in imitation of the hen, to allure the gobbler within reach of his rifle, will sometimes be annoyed by the appearance of the wild cat, stealing

up to the place from whence the sounds proceed. The greatest caution on such an occasion is visible, the cat advancing by the slowest possible movements, stealing along like a serpent. The hunter knows that the creature has spoiled his turkey sport for the morning, and his only revenge is to wait patiently, and give the cat the contents of his gun; then, minus all game, he goes home, anathematizing the whole race of cats for thus interfering with his sport and his dinner.

Of all the peculiarities of the cat, its untameable and quarrelsome disposition is its most marked characteristic. The western hunter, when he wishes to cap the climax of braggadocia, with respect to his own prowess, says, "he can whip his weight in wild cats." This is saying all that can be said, for it would seem, considering its size, that the cat in a fight can bite fiercer, scratch harder, and live longer than any other animal whatever. "I am a roaring earthquake in a fight," sung out one of the halfhorse and half-alligator species of fellows, a real snorter of the universe-"I can strike as hard as fourth proof lightning, and keep it up, rough and tumble, as long as a wild cat." These high encomiums on the character of the pugnacity of the cat are beyond question. "A singed cat" is an excellent proverb, illustrating that a person may be smarter than he looks. A singed wildcat, as such an illustration, would be sublime. There is no halfway mark, no exception, no occasional moment of good nature; starvation and a surfeit, blows and kind words, kicks, cuffs, and fresh meat, reach not the sympathies of the wild cat. He has the greediness of the pawnbroker, the ill-nature of an old usurer, the meanness of a pettifogging lawyer, the blind rage of the hog, and the apparent insensibility to pain of the turtle; like a woman, the wild cat is incomparable to any thing but itself. In expression of face the wild cat singularly resembles the rattlesnake. The skulls of these two "varmints" have the same venomous expression, the same demonstration of fangs, and probably no two creatures living attack each other with more deadly ferocity and hate. They will stare at each other with eyes filled with defiance, and burning with fire; one hissing and the other snarling, presenting a most terrible picture of the malevolence of passion. The serpent in its attitudes is all grace, the cat all acti

vity; the serpent moves with the quickness of lightning, while making the attack, the cat defends itself with motions equally quick, bounding from side to side, striking with its paws: both are often victors, for they seldom separate until death-blows have been inflicted on either side. The Indians, who, in their notions and traditions, are always picturesque and beautiful, imagine that the rattlesnake, to live, must breathe the poisonous air of the swamps and the exhalations of decayed animal matter, while the cat has the attribute of gloating over the meaner displays of evil passions in a quarrelsome person;-and in speaking of a quarrelsome family, they say, "that a lodge containing them fattens the wild cats."

HISTORY OF THE SETTER AND POINTER.

BY E. J. LEWIS.

THE exact origin of this truly valuable dog cannot be asserted with any degree of confidence, although we know full well that he is nearly allied to all the different breeds of Spaniel, that are now disseminated over the whole civilized world, and in fact is sprung from the same parent stock, but mixed in various proportions with the numberless varieties that are now seen and familiarly known under the various appellations of Cocker Spaniel, Springer, King Charles, Water Spaniel, Poodles, &c. It is highly probable, in fact, quite evident, that he is the result of a commixture of the two species of the canine race, known in early times as the Sagaces and Celeres; as he combines in an eminent degree the individual characteristics of these two formerly distinct species. Sagacious, beyond comparison, and swift as the wind, he flies over the field, hunting every nook and corner of it, before we have time to half stretch its narrowest limits. The precise period at which the Setter came into existence is somewhat obscure, although we can trace his history to a much earlier date than that of his brother in sport, the Pointer, the next most interesting of the canine race. According to Mr. Youatt, as far back as 1335, we find the Setter claiming the particular notice of

a distinguished nobleman, who had trained him for the purposes of field sports, and succeeded in teaching him to find and point game as in our present time. Nevertheless, this is not the earliest record that we have of the Setter being used in the particular way that we now see him altogether educated to;-as his qualifications are spoken of at dates even long prior to this, and there is but little doubt that he always possessed the instinctive predilections for hunting, which seem to mark the whole Spaniel tribe, of whose stock he is the most important branch.

The great abundance of game at this early period, the little care requisite for finding it on the part of man, and the entire different modes of taking it, rendered the assistance of a dog quite unnecessary. Consequently, the latent qualifications of the Setter were not earlier cultivated or brought into action as they are at present. The imperative calls of necessity alone oftentimes compels man to draw forth from the inexhaustible fountains of nature the materials whereby he may supply any seeming deficiency in his own mental or physical construction, and by his superior endowments make all her wondrous works subservient to his own peculiar purposes.

And thus as civilization progressed, and the pristine fields were turned under by the steady plough of the industrious husbandman, and the ancient forests resounded with the blows of the sturdy woodsman, the numberless variety of birds and beasts, driven from their natural haunts, and interrupted in their natural habits, becoming more scarce and timid from the presence of man, no longer suffered themselves to be entrapped by the usual methods. New stratagems were necessary-new modes of attack and plans of hunting were forced upon cruel man.

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Necessity, the mother of invention," now came to his assistance, and pointed out to him the natural instincts of the Spaniel tribe, by the help of whose wonderful sagacity he now defies the cunning of the most crafty game.

VARIETIES OF THE SETTER.

There are many varieties of the Setter, but only two that claim any particular attention—the English and Irish. The former va

riety is the breed that is so widely disseminated over our country, the full-blood Irish being quite rare with us; in fact, scarcely known but in his own native island. The only full-blooded, well-marked, imported Irish Setter, known to the writer, is one formerly owned by a gentlemen of this city, Mr. F. This animal was a remarkable dog in his palmy days, being full-blood, intelligent, ambibitious, swift and industrious; continued hunting with ardour to an advanced age, and even now, though fourteen years old, can stand a day's hunt with the most of dogs. As an instance of Smoke's extraordinary instinct, I may mention that he has been known more than once to silently withdraw from his point, and look for his master, whom he had lost, and by signs peculiar to himself, attract the attention of Mr. F. until he had induced him to accompany him to the spot where he had left the birds undisturbed. Smoke was also very averse to hunting with a bad shot, and in fact, has been known to leave the field after a succession of indifferent shooting. These two instances alone seem to argue that this dog was possessed of a faculty stronger than instinct, and that inductive reason governed his actions in these cases. Mr. F. has this strain of dogs still in his possession, and they seem little inferior to their much respected progenitor.

This latter species is somewhat larger than the former, and not so varied in his colours, being most generally of a reddish-brown or chestnut tinge, and more coarse in the texture of his wool. His limbs and proportions are not so graceful and well-turned as the English, but it must be confessed that he is more hardy and enduring than our breed, owing perhaps to the greater purity of the stock; as the frequent crossing of the English breed with the Pointer has had, no doubt, a tendency to deteriorate the original purity of the Setter. His qualifications as a hunter, and disposition as a dog, are very much the same, at all events not inferior to those of the best bred English Setter. If, however, the English cannot present the same muscular power, or exhibit quite equal physical developments, in their animals, these possess one positive superiority over the Irish, in the fineness and varied hues of their silky hair-which to a sportsman is a matter of considerable moment, as a handsome and good dog certainly commands more value in the eyes of his master than a superior but ill-looking animal.