286 The Book of Cats. 



time that we noticed this conduct on the Cat's 

 part, she was with Kitten, and when the four 

 Kittens were born they were dead, and one of 

 them, strange to say, had a bulldog-shaped head, 

 marked almost exactly like the picture. 



I need not tell a kind master or mistress to use 

 every precaution when drowning a Cat's kittens, to 

 keep their mother in ignorance of the fact. It can 

 easily be imagined that the poor creature will be in 

 great distress if the slaughter be committed before 

 her eyes ; and I know of a case where the Cat 

 having found her young ones which had been 

 drowned and thrown carelessly in the corner of a 

 yard, brought the bodies back to her nest, and mew- 

 ing and licking them, seemed to use every endeavour 

 to restore them to life. A friend of mine, too, once 

 passing along the bank of a river one moonlight 

 night found a Cat mewing piteously among the long 

 grass at the water's edge. He came to a stand-still a 

 dozen yards from the spot, and looked on curiously. 

 At sight of him, the Cat turned round, and came 

 running to his feet, looking-up appealingly into his 

 face, and running back to the water side and then 

 back again to him, seemingly to be entreating his 

 assistance. Presently the moonlight showed him 

 three or four kittens being borne away by the 



