CUKIOUS SPECIMEN OF A DRIED CAT. 71 



both had perished by gradual starvation, and their 

 bodies had dried into the state in which they were 

 discovered." In consequence of the bodies being 

 but little exposed to the air, decomposition seems 

 to have ensued very slightly, as they are of a hard 

 and mummy-like consistency, though without a 

 trace of hair, excepting some of the mustachial 

 bristles of the cat, which still remain. The larvso 

 of Derme&tes lardarius, a small beetle which 

 deposits its eggs only in dry flesh, has made con- 

 siderable inroads on the interior of the bodies, 

 little else remaining but the bones and outer skin, 

 though the marks of the cat's canine teeth are 

 well defined on the back of its prey. On careful 

 examination, I find that nearly all the ribs on 

 one side of the cat are fractured, and in several 

 instances completely broken. Two also of the 

 lumbar vertebra are dislocated, as if the body of 

 the animal had been crushed by some considerable 

 weight. The rat appears also to have suffered from 

 the same cause, as it is almost flattened. It appears 

 to me, that pussy while pursuing her game amongst 

 the rafters displaced some of the woodwork, and 

 was killed by the closer junction of some of the 

 beams after having secured her prey, as the rat was 

 held in her mouth and not by the paws, the feline 

 tribes always seizing their victims with the latter. 

 You uphold in all your writings so admirably the 



