ii 4 LOCH CRERAN. 



JANUARY, 1882. 



What a pretty picture they made, to be sure, in the 

 comfortable room with the cheerful surroundings and 

 every evidence of affectionate interest in the animal 

 creation around them. Cats you call them ? you say, as 

 soon as you have recovered from the natural start as one 

 huge barred animal leaps upon the table and another 

 awaits with impatience, but with dignity, the proffered 

 morsel. Cats, indeed ! tigers that have become domesti- 

 cated, so far as size and appearance goes. Just look at 

 their large soft eyes, however, and the extremely gentle 

 ways of the beautiful creatures, and you will be better 

 able to appreciate the fact that they have descended in 

 the same family for generations, and both by inheritance 

 and culture are thoroughly civilised and cultivated. 

 Perhaps you are inclined to doubt the statement until 

 one impatiently notifies its desire for a share of the meal, 

 and with well-bred grace removes the Brussels sprout from 

 the lady's fork, and continnes to " look for more " until 

 the whole are consumed. We have all seen a cat eat 

 grass, but one with a passionate love for such vegetable 

 delicacies as Brussels sprouts is surely a rare creature to 

 meet. Yet both these large, gentle carnivora showed a 

 marked partiality for this vegetable, even from the midst 

 of the plate full of well-fattened turkey. We are all 

 wonderfully accommodating when food that more 

 especially suits us is scarce ; but it by no means follows 

 that we should become more especially enamoured of a 

 food not naturally suited to our ordinary physiological 

 condition. But these cats had become almost vegetarians 

 in their preference for a delicate sprout to a piece of 

 turkey. 



" I don't like the way the rooks are flying," says our 



