CATS AND THEIR FRIENDSHIPS. 



95 



wade into a small pond up to her shoulders to catch her game. 

 She was " always fond of dabbling in the water." Mr. Harrison 

 Weir * tells of a cat which used to go into the water up to her 

 shoulders to bring in the fish which her master drew up with the 

 hook, and which stole out the minnows that had been placed, for 

 safe keeping, in a well of cold spring-water. 



The domestic cat is not identical with the Egyptian cat, and, 

 therefore, if descended from it, must have undergone modifica- 

 tions in the process. It is not known whether it has interbred 

 with the wild cat ; but it is possible that some of the varieties 

 have originated in that way. The marks of difference between 

 the species are very plain. The most obvious one is the shape of 

 the tail (Fig. 2), which in the domestic cat is long, slender, and 

 tapering, while in the wild cat it is shorter, stumpy, and bushy. 

 The fact that no tendency has been observed in either of these 



Fig. 5.— Mrs. Scott's English Taebt " Coppa." First Prize at the Crystal Palace Cat 



Show, 1886. 



forms of tail to revert to the other is in favor of a permanent 

 specific difference. The minor varieties of cats are numerous, but 

 the important ones are not many. A line is drawn between the 

 short-haired and the long-haired varieties. Of the former are the 

 tabbies (Figs. 5 and 10) — brown, blue, or silver ; red and spotted 

 tabbies — of various colors, with their delicate stripings, cloudings, 

 or spots ; the Chartreuse, blue, or Maltese, which has long, slate- 

 colored fur, and a bushy neck and tail ; the Spanish, or tortoise- 

 shell (Fig. 11) — white, black, and reddish-brown, mixed, whose 



Our Cats and all about Them. Boston and New York : Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 



