The Book of Cats. 95 



country, and more particularly to the north of 

 Scotland, there have been occasional crosses with 

 our native species, and that the result of these 

 crosses have been kept in our houses. We have 

 seen many Cats very closely resembling the wild 

 Cat, and one or two which could scarcely be dis- 

 tinguished from it. There is, perhaps, no other 

 animal that so soon loses its cultivation and re- 

 turns apparently to a state completely wild : the 

 tasting of some wild and living food may tempt 

 them to seek it again and to leave their civilized 

 homes. They then prowl about in the same 

 manner as their prey, couching in the long grass 

 and brush-wood, and hiding themselves from all 

 publicity." 



No game destroyer, however, is more easily 

 caught than the Cat. In summer, when rabbit- 

 paunches will not keep on account of the weather, 

 a little valerian root is used as a bait. The Cats 

 come to rub themselves on it, finding some unac- 

 countable pleasure in so doing. The valerian root 

 is of a whitish colour, and it has a very strong and 

 disagreeable smell : it is used by us as a medicine 

 in nervous disorders, and its good effects against 

 headaches, low-spirits, and trembling of the limbs 

 are well known. A story is told of a little boy 



