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THE DOMESTIC CAT, {FELIS CATUS DOMESTICA.) 



BY JAMES SCRYMGEOUR, ESQ. 



A PARAGRAPH among the locals' of our paper of this day, sets forth an 

 instance of a Cat, which its master banished to the other end of the town, 

 finding its way back on the following morning — a very curious fact to be sure, 

 and worthy of note — but it is by no means an uncommon one, I have 

 heard and read of numberless instances of a similar kind. I may mention one 

 which never has yet been stated in print. The Rev. Mr. Mearns, Wesleyan 

 Minister at Perth, while a missionary at Guy's Hill, in the Island of Jamaica, 

 had a beautiful Cat, which he wished to give as a present to Samuel Rogers, 

 Esq., of Louisiana, which is situated fully six miles farther on among the 

 mountains, by wild and dangerous roads. The feline gift was accordingly 

 tied into a bag, and taken to Louisiana, and duly liberated there, in the 

 hope that it would make itself at home. The Cat never was away from 

 Guy's 1 1 ill in its life before, and could not possibly have seen the trees, 

 rocks, or any other objects which marked the route between Guy's Hill and 

 Louisiana, and yet next morning it was back at the Mission-house at Guy's 

 Hill, purring at the feet of her astonished master and mistress. 



But to come nearer our own "great River Tay." A gentleman living in 

 Bank Street got a Cat from Claverhouse — three miles distant I should think. 

 This Cat, though kindly treated, would not stay, and, as it is supposed, found 

 its way out at a window in the roof of the house, and without any lesions 

 on longitude, returned to its former home. Some years ago, a person in 

 Kirriemuir, wijhing to get rid of his Cat without drowning it, gave it in 

 charge of a carrier going to Montrose, who turned it adrift near the city of 

 Brechin, nearly twelve miles away, and thought it "all right," so far as the 

 intention was concerned. But not so. Puss was back to its home in Kirriemuir 

 before night. 



While on the subject, I may as well mention what may either be called 

 a remarkable instance of feline intelligence, or a curious coincidence. In the 

 summer of J 850, while living in lodgings on the other side of the water, at 

 Figtree Cottage, Newport, I was asked one day by Dr. Greig, the present 

 demonstrator at the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, then a student, 

 spending his vacation here, to bring over some frogs, alias padocks, with me, 

 for the purpose of subjecting their feet to the microscope, which beautifully 

 shows the circulation of the blood. I mentioned the matter to roy landlady, 

 with the view of eliciting from her the likeliest locality for capturing a few. 

 During our conversation on the subject, the Cat of the house, which was 

 present, appeared to listen; but whether it did understand us or not, I shall 

 not pretend to say; but of a surety it did go out of the room, and in less 

 than ten minutes, even while we were yet on the subject, it did return, 

 bringing a large toad with it in its mouth, which it dropped down at the 

 feet of its mistress, and looked up as if it had done it s^ duty , and deserved 



VOL. IV. 



