THE RAT AND THE CAT. 119 



of hawks and found the remains of weasels, rats, 

 and moles.' Being further questioned, he says 

 'he has found weasels, rats, and moles in the 

 stomach of the golden eagle and the peregrine 

 falcon.' Such a statement seems calculated to 

 mislead people into the idea that rats are the 

 habitual food of these birds. Yet we are sure 

 for every time that Mr. Angus found fur in a 

 falcon's stomach he has five hundred times 

 found feathers. We never once saw fur round 

 their nests. An occasional instance proves 

 nothing. A bird may have been wounded or 

 half starved. 



If an alderman were shipwrecked on an un- 

 inhabited island he would probably live upon 

 the contents of a cask of biscuits which might 

 be washed ashore. But the scientific gentle- 

 man among a party of savages, who might ex- 

 amine him after his friends who happened to 

 land on that island had killed him for their 

 supper, would, w:e know, arrive at an erroneous 

 conclusion if he entered it in his note-books as 



