1 84 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. 



Winter Circus at Paris some years ago. These 

 cats were all of a Dutch breed, which Bonnetty 

 says are especially docile; and his method was 

 simply patient persistence in informing the cat 

 what was wanted of it, and persuading it to 

 do that thing. Here whipping and harsh words 

 are of no use. Pussy's nature is quite different 

 from the dog's. If the cat refuses to do what you 

 wish, and cannot be coaxed, violence will only 

 harden her heart. You must simply abandon the 

 matter for that time at least. The hardest work 

 was to teach the first cat. It required months of 

 patient attention. Adding them one by one, he 

 found the training of the late recruits much easier, 

 because they imitated quickly what the older per- 

 formers were doing. Bonnetty has never been 

 able to succeed in teaching Persian or Angora 

 cats, and does not find kittens much more ready 

 to learn than full-grown cats. He says, also, that 

 some cats, able and willing to go through their 

 antics well in private, cannot be induced to attempt 

 them amid the noise and glare of the circus. 



There were fifteen or twenty cats in his troupe. 

 When the curtain rose a flock of canaries was seen 

 perched upon a cord stretched across the stage. 

 Near them some white mice and dappled gray 

 rats were resting quietly. M. Bonnetty opened 

 the door of the cats' palace, and in Indian file all 

 the artists marched slowly out, striding over the 

 rodents and birds, some of which flew off and fear- 



