CAT EATING A ROBIN. 77 



With reference to our cat's slaughter of the 

 robins mentioned in my last letter, a cor- 

 respondent asks " Whether Charlie ate the 

 whole of the cock robin ? " 



"The reason I ask is," he goes on to say, 

 "that I have seen cats catch robins many times 

 and oft, but they never devoured the whole 

 bird, as they would sparrows, linnets, &c. In 

 other cases, though they would catch they would 

 not touch the bird, but simply leave it where it 

 was slaughtered. For my part, I would sooner 

 eat one sparrow than ten starlings, and to the cat 

 there may be as much difference in the flavour of 

 robins and sparrows as there is in sparrows and 

 starlings to me. Well, sparrows roasted are 

 delicious. From what I have noticed there is 

 evidently something in a full-grown robin cats 

 strongly object to ; just as much as some of them 

 like the hind legs of the common frog. This 

 makes the circumstance mentioned the more 

 remarkable, unless it was that Charlie had a 

 stomach of steel." 



My correspondent is altogether too literal 

 in his interpretation of my words. I ought, 

 perhaps, to have said that Charlie slaughtered 

 those robins, for I saw their mangled remains 

 afterwards. Charlie is a well-fed cat, and 

 gets all the tit-bits of the house, so his 

 massacre of these innocents was committed 



