Miscellaneous. \ 85 



mice, for if you succeed in discovering their runs and fill them 

 up with old rags, plentifully saturated with coal tar, and 

 liberally sprinkled over with broken glass throughout the entire 

 length of their tracks, which usually terminates at or near 

 a drain unless it is in the neighbourhood of a water-mill or 

 other exceptional place and, lastly, plug up the road of egress 

 with broken bricks and cement, you will generally succeed 

 in forcing them to find fresh quarters, unless, as may happen 

 in rare instances, there is a complete colony of the vermin, 

 in which case it would be necessary to employ both dogs and 

 ferrets to thin their ranks before any other precautionary 

 measures were employed. It would, furthermore, in a case of 

 this kind be advisable to keep a cat constantly upon the 

 premises ; but cats are almost as much to be dreaded as the 

 rats themselves, unless they are "broken to birds." "Ha! 

 broken to birds, did I hear you say?" Yes! Some fanciers 

 bring up cats among their birds and train them to live among 

 them on a peaceful footing. For " Catching Rats," see p 204. 

 BREAKING CATS TO BIRDS. I have seen a cat which was 

 allowed to remain in a room where there were no fewer than 

 sixty or eighty birds flying about loose, and strange to say, she 

 had kittens a few days old in a comer of the same room at the 

 time. The birds appeared quite familiarised with the animal, 

 and took no more notice of her than they did of the water 

 fountain placed in the centre of the room for their use I mean, 

 so far as to exhibit any symptoms of fear or timidity. I have 

 seen others that were permitted to go in and out of rooms where 

 birds were kept at pleasure, and to remain there during the 

 night by themselves, and yet they never attempted to molest 

 them ; the birds, however, were kept in cages, but not beyond 

 the reach of those feline depredators had they felt inclined 

 to a little carnage. One fancier, with whom I was intimately 

 acquainted, possessed a cat that, judging from its actions, 

 seemed to be not only on terms of great intimacy with the 

 birds, but actually appeared to have an affectionate regard for 

 them. I have seen this cat repeatedly drink out of the water 

 vessels containing the supply for the use of the birds, and then 

 curl herself up with her face to the cage, upon the cage stand, 



