The Book of Cats. 5 i 



Every animal has its own way of killing and 

 eating its prey. The fox leaves the legs and 

 hinder parts of a hare or rabbit ; the weasel and 

 stoat eat the brains, and nibble about the head, and 

 suck the blood ; crows and magpies peck at the 

 eyes ; the dog tears his prey to pieces indiscrimi- 

 nately ; the Cat always turns the skin inside out 

 like a glove. 



Mr. Buckland relates the case of a gamekeeper 

 who bought up all the Cats in the neighbouring 

 town, cut off their heads, and nailed them up as tro- 

 phies of veritable captures in the woods. In a game- 

 keeper's museum, visited by the same writer, were 

 no less than fifty-three Cats' heads staring hideously 

 down from the shelves. There was a story attached 

 to each head. One Cat was killed in such a wood ; 

 another in such a hedge-row ; some in traps, some 

 shot, some knocked on the head with a stick ; but 

 what was most remarkable was the different ex- 

 pression of countenance observable in each indivi- 

 dual head. One had died fighting desperately to 

 the last, and giving up its nine lives inch by inch. 

 Caught in a trap, it had lingered the night through 

 in dreadful agony, the pain of its entrapped limb 

 causing it to- make furious efforts to free itself, each 

 effort but lending" another torment to the wound. 



