214 WITH THE U. S. NATURALISTS 



white Angora cat, belonging to a man living some 

 distance away, a queer hermit-like character, who 

 was known simply as *' The Feather Man. " Shan 

 knew hardly anything about him, but he had heard 

 of the big white Angora. So, as he looked on the 

 blood-tipped white hairs stuck to the wire protec- 

 tion that he had lashed to the tree, Shan said to 

 himself, 



'at's the Feather Man's cat!" 



He looked around but saw no sign of the cat. 

 The trail of the claws, however, was perfectly clear 

 in the soft ground, and seeing that the slight flecks 

 of blood on the white hairs were not yet dry, the 

 boy decided to follow up the trail. 



He had not far to go, fortunately, for the tracks 

 were light and difficult to follow. After ten min- 

 utes ' walking, he saw a glint of white in the bushes 

 to his left. 



There are few white things in nature to be 

 found in summer and in the daytime. The white 

 stripe on a skunk's back, the white tip of a rabbit's 

 tail, the white patch on a deer's rump, or the flash 

 of white as a King-bird or a Cuckoo flies constitute 

 the chief possibilities. Even the rare cases of 

 albinism, w^hich give a white Blackbird, a white 

 Crow, and even a white Turkey Buzzard are suffi- 



