3o6 PROC. COTTESWOLD CLUB vol. xiii. (4) 



Cats have occasionally taken to the water. Mr Bellows 

 has kindly sent me the following interesting extract from 

 a paper by Mr F. Sessions ; — 



" Some years ago our firm had two large brick-j'ards in Gloucester- 

 shire, on the banks of the Severn. Many acres of each of them became 

 pools of water from the excavation of the clay. A breed of web-footed 

 cats belonged to the foreman who resided at one of the yards. These 

 cats, generation after generation, nearly all being tabbies of very ordinary 

 appearance, took the water almost as freely as spaniels, catching fish, 

 and bringing them up to the cottage to eat. In order to tell whether 

 their taking to the water was the result of heredity or of education, we 

 had some young kittens taken from one brick-yard to the other, a 

 distance of about two miles. We were interested to learn that, as soon 

 as they were old enough, they went into the water as naturally as their 

 mothers. Some time ago, our foreman left that neighbourhood, and 

 took the cats with him. I have learned since that the cats have become 

 extinct. I understood that he never had one of that breed that did not 

 take to swimming and fishing, and I believe, but am not sure, diving 

 also. Our foreman, who owned the cats, is still living [1885]: his 

 name and address are — Stephen Skidmore, Oxford Road, Gloucester. 

 I have myself seen the cats bring the fish from the water, and examined 

 their paws, and it was* at my own and my father's wish that the kits 

 were carried to the other pools."* 



Mr Jesse mentions a cat belonging to a miller near 

 Fakenham, in Norfolk, who would dive into deep water 

 after fish. This was almost a daily practice with this cat. 

 Darwin also relates a similar circumstance of a cat, who 

 caught trout in a stream at a mill near Lichfield. I have 

 never personally observed an instance of this habit in a 

 cat, but I have been told of a cat which catches fish in the 

 Severn near Tewkesbury. 



I will very shortly allude to the protective markings of 

 cats. There can be no doubt that the ancient dwelling- 

 place of the cat was the forest, because kittens at once 



* Frederick Sessions. " Web-footeJ Fishing Cats," Natural History Journal and School 

 Reporter, Vol. ix., York, 1885. 



