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Handbook of Nature-Study 



you think so? Do you think she has a keen sense of hearing? How do 

 the shape and position of the ears help in listening? In what position are 

 the ears when puss is angry? 



9. How many colors do you find in our domestic cats. What is the 

 color of wild cats ? Why would it not be beneficial to the wild-cat to have 

 as striking colors as our tame cats? Compare the fur of the cat with the 

 hair of the dog. How do they differ? If a cat chased her prey like the 

 clog do you think her fur would be a too warm covering? 



10. Describe how the cat washes her face. How does she clean her 

 fur? How does her rough tongue help in this? How does the mother 

 cat wash her kittens ? 



1 1 . How does a little kitten look when a day or two old ? How long 

 before its eyes open? How does the cat carry her kittens? How does a 

 kitten act when it is being carried ? How does the mother cat punish her 

 kittens? How does she teach them to catch mice? How do kittens play? 

 How does the exercise they get in playing fit them to become hunters? 



12. How should cats be trained not to touch birds? When must this 

 training begin ? Why should a person be punished for injury to the public 

 who takes cats to summer cottages and leaves them there to run wild? 



13. Where in the room does puss best like to lie? How does she sun 

 herself? What herb does she like best? Does she like some people and 

 not others? What strange companions have you known a cat to have? 

 What is the cat's chief enemy? How should we care for and make her 

 comfortable ? 



14. Write or tell stories on the following subjects: (i) The things 

 which my pet cat does; (2) The Wild Cat; (3) The Lion; (4) The Tiger; 

 (5) The Leopard ; (6) The Panther and the Mountain Lion ; (7) The Lynx; 

 (8) The History of Domestic Cats; (9) The Different Races of Cats, 

 describing the Manx, the Persian and the Angora Cats. 



Supplementary reading The Life of Animals, Ingersoll; American 

 Animals, Stone and Cram; Our Domestic Animals, Burkett; The Fireside 

 Sphinx, Repplier; Concerning Cats, Winslow; The following animal 

 stories from St. Nicholas Magazine : Cat Stories, Lion and Tiger Stories, 

 Panther Stories. 



