THE CAT TO-DAY 265 



ample opportunities for observation. He is ill 

 pleased with hasty inferences where the cat is con 

 cerned, and even thinks them a little impertinent, 

 as indicating a tendency on the writer s part to 

 claim familiar acquaintance with an animal who po 

 litely, but resolutely, declines familiarity. No two 

 cats, says Mr. Lang, have the same traits. One 

 eats his dinner like a gentleman. His ancestors 

 evidently lived in hermit-like seclusion. Another 

 prefers raiding his companion s dish. His fore 

 fathers, by the same token, must have been accus 

 tomed to society. Even Mr. Robinson s conclusion 

 that the tailless Manx cat is probably a repre 

 sentative of some ancient wild species, finds no 

 favour in Mr. Lang s eyes. He has accounted 

 long ago in a fashion satisfactory to himself, and 

 on strict &quot;principles of evolution,&quot; for this unfor 

 tunate animal s peculiarity. 



&quot; Man,&quot; he says, &quot; is a Celtic island. The Celts 

 (in Brittany at least) believe that if you tread on a 

 cat s tail, a serpent will come out and sting you. 

 This made people shy of cats with tails. But a 

 tailless cat being born by a pure fluke (see Darwin 

 on Sports), and transmitting its peculiarity to its 

 offspring, these cats with no tails were especially 

 adapted to their Celtic environment. People could 

 make pets of them, without fear of serpents. The 

 other cats were killed off, or died for lack of friendly 



