68 



The Living Animals of the World 



Photo by T. Fall] 



[Baker Street. 



WHITE SHOET-HAIKED. 



Most white cats are not albinoes that is to say, they have ordinarily 

 coloured and not red eyes. 



THE DOMESTIC CAT. 



BY LOUIS WAIN. 



OF the domestication of the cat we know 

 very little, but it is recorded that a tribe 

 of cats was trained to retrieve i.e. to fetch 

 and carry game. In our own time I have 

 seen many cats fetch and carry corks and 

 newspapers, and on one occasion pounce upon 

 a small roach at the end of a line and place 

 it at its owner's feet. Gamekeepers whom I 

 have known agree that, for cunning, craftiness, 

 and tenacity in attaining an object, the semi- 

 wild cat of the woods shows far superior 

 intelligence to the rest of the woodland 

 denizens. It is quite a usual thing to hear 

 of farm cats entering upon a snake-hunting 

 expedition with the greatest glee, and showing 



remarkable readiness in pitching upon their quarry and pinning it down until secured. 

 These farm cats are quite a race by themselves. Of decided sporting proclivities, they roam the 

 countryside with considerable fierceness, and yet revert to the domesticity of the farmhouse fireside 

 as though innocent of roving instincts. They are spasmodic to a degree in their mode of life, 

 and apparently work out one mood before entering upon another. It will be remembered that 

 this spasmodic tendency the true feline independence, by-the-bye is and has been characteristic 

 of the cat throughout its history, and any one who has tried to overcome it has met with failure. 



Watch your own cat, and you will see that he will change his sleeping-quarters 

 periodically ; and if he can find a newspaper conveniently placed, he will prefer it to lie upon, 

 before anything perhaps, except a cane-bottomed chair, to which all cats are very partial. If 

 you keep a number of cats, as I do, you will find that they are very imitative, and what one 

 gets in the habit of doing they will all do in time : for instance, one of my cats took 

 to sitting with his front paws inside my tall hat and his body outside, and this has 

 become a catty fashion in the family, whether the object be a hat, cap, bonnet, small 

 basket, box, or tin. If by chance one of the cats is attacked by a dog, a peculiar cry from 

 the aggrieved animal will immediately awaken the others 

 out of their lethargy or sleep, and bring them fiercely to 

 the rescue. They are, too, particularly kind and nice to 

 the old cat, and are tolerant only of strange baby 

 kittens and very old cats in the garden as long as 

 they do not interfere with the " catty " 

 subject. The same quality obtains in Spain 

 or Portugal, where a race of scaveng- 

 ing cats exists, which go about in 

 droves or families, and are equal 

 to climbing straight walls, big 

 trees, chimneys, and mountain- 

 sides. Long, lanky, and thin, 

 they are built more on the lines 

 of a greyhound than the ordinary 

 cat, and are more easily trained 

 in tricks than home cats. . 



The TORTOISESHELL has long 

 been looked upon as the national 



Photo l>y T. Fall] 



[Bilker Street. 



LONG-HAIBED WHITE. 



White cats with blue eyes are generally deaf, or at all events hard of hearing. 



