68 



Bats. 



Probably not very many bats are caught by cats as compared 

 with the number of birds destroyed, for bats never willingly 

 come to the ground. Occasionally a low-flying bat is struck 

 down by a cat, or one that has entered a dwelling house is caught, 

 but only two observers report to me the destruction of bats by 

 the cat. 



Reptiles and Amphibians. 



As the hunting cat strikes practically every quick-moving 

 object it can reach and master, toads, frogs, lizards, newts, 

 salamanders and snakes, particularly the useful, smaller species, 

 are decimated. Many cats destroy the beneficial toad at night, 

 when it is most active, while frogs are less often molested. The 

 killing of toads by cats is done mainly under the cloak of dark- 

 ness, but I have seen cats killing them under the street lights at 

 night. Four observers report cats killing toads, and five have 

 observed them killing frogs. 



Fish. 

 The well-known antipathy of cats for water would seem to 

 preclude fishing as a feline accomplishment, but five of my cor- 

 respondents report fishing cats. In two cases the identity of 

 the fish caught could not be determined. In other cases, trout, 

 smelt and eels were caught. ]\Ir. E. Colfax Johnson says that 

 when the streams are low in summer, cats get many trout. This 



is corroborated by others. Mr. James 

 E. Bemis of Framingham has seen cats 

 catching smelt in shallow pools left by 

 the receding tide. One cat "flipped" 

 out three with her paw and carried 

 all three away in her mouth at once. 

 Cats may get the fishing habit at the 

 seashore or by finding fish dead or 

 dying. Stables says that a cat may be easily taught to fish by 

 taking her, when young, to- a shallow stream on a clear day when 

 minnows are plentiful, and throwing in a few dead ones, meanwhile 

 encouraging her to catch them, when she will soon learn to catch the 

 living fish.^ Buckland, Darwin and others tell of cats which, with- 

 out teaching, learned to go into the water and catch fish. Stables 

 asserts that he has "dozens" of well-authenticated anecdotes of 

 cats expert at fishing. He avers that he watched one dive into 

 a stream and emerge almost immediately with a large trout in its 



> SUblee, Gordon: The Domestic Cat, 1876, p. 01. 



