NATURAL HISTORY. 75 



You dread reformers of an impious age, 

 You awful cat -o' -nine-tail 8 to the stage, 

 This once be just, and in our cause engage." VANBVRGH. 



223. JPhy, when playing with a cat, does she turn upon her 

 lack and seize your hand with her daws? 



The cat, thus in play, imitates the habit of wild animals of her 

 species, which, when they seize an animal large enough to make 

 the capture difficult, hold it with their fore paws, turn on their 

 backs, and then by working rapidly with the claws of the hind 

 feet, they tear open the abdomen of their prey. 



224 Why does cropping the ears of cats close to the head 

 prevent their climbing trees and destroying birds ? 



Because the interior ear of the cat is extremely sensitive, especially 

 to moisture. When, therefore, the external ear is removed, the 

 animal in moving about is subjected to constant and painful 

 annoyances, through the exposure of the ear. 



This practice of clipping cats' ears is much resorted to in British 

 Guiana, where the settlements are near the woods, and birds so 

 numerous that the cats are continually straying after them. 



225. Cats thus cropped cannot go into the open air at all during the rains ; and even 

 in the dry season they cannot pursue their feathered prey in the woods at night, 

 which is their favourite hunting time, because even then the leaves are generally 

 covered with heavy dew, which the progress of the cat causes to drop into the 

 openings of the ears, and thus the cat is obliged to stay at home and pursue her 

 mouse and rat-catching.* 



226. Why does the fur of cats emit electrical sparks when 

 briskly rubbed ? 



Electricity is common to all animal bodies. Although not fully 

 understood, it may be regarded, if not as one of the elements, as at 

 least one of the conditions of life. With regard to the electricity 

 of the cat, it is probable that the emission of sparks under friction 

 arises from the peculiar dryness of the fur, which is free from the 

 oily substance common to the coats of other animals. 



227. Hair of this kind is a very bad conductor of electricity, and as such it can be 

 made electric by friction. It will be readily understood that this non-conducting 

 power in the fur of the cat must act as a barrier between what goes on internally 

 and the external atmosphere. If great energy is by any means excited, this pro- 

 perty must prevent that energy from being dispersed in the air; and this condi- 



* I'artington's " Cyclopaedia." 



