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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



picture on a tomb at Gurneh, a hunter is represented in his boat 

 in the marshes as about to hurl his throw-stick at a covey of 

 birds, while a cat by his side is on the alert to spring upon the 

 game he is expected to bring down. Another picture (Fig. 3) rep- 

 resents the cat seizing a bird. This would involve going into the 



Fig. 3.— An Egyptian Fowling Scene. 1. Sportsman using the throw-stick. 2. Keeps the boat 

 steady by holding the stalks of a lotus. 4. A cat seizing the game in the thicket. 5. A decoy 

 bird. 6. Fishes, the emblem of water. 



water, an act to which our modern cats usually have a very 

 strong dislike. If the Egyptian cats had the same feelings, they 

 must have come under the discipline of skillful trainers. But 

 there have been fisher cats in modern times. Mr. Ross, in his 

 Book of Cats, tells of one that lived in 1829, which caught fish 

 with great assiduity, and frequently brought them home alive. 

 She taught another cat to fish, and they used to go out together, 



sometimes taking opposite sides of the 

 river. Another story is quoted by the 

 same author, of a cat at the battery in 

 Plymouth, England, that was in the 

 habit of diving into the sea, bringing 

 up fish, and leaving them in the guard- 

 room for the sailors. She was seven 

 years old, and " as fond of the water as a Newfoundland dog," 

 and hunted regularly along the rocks at the water's edge for 

 her game, " ready to dive for it at a moment's notice/ 7 A cat 

 described by Mr. Lawson Tait was a remarkable fisher, and would 



Domestic. 



Wild. 



Fig. 4.— Cats' Tails. 



