THE SHORT-HAIRED CAT 207 



The food which seems to suit them is fresh fish, boiled 

 with rice ; but where this is not available, they will readily 

 eat bread and milk, particularly if given lukewarm, the 

 milk being boiled before being mixed with the bread ; 

 they also like the fragments of game and chicken left 

 from the table. 



Unless they have been reared in the country, so as to 

 become fairly hardy, they are rather delicate, and the 

 kittens liable to mortality before they grow up, but it is 

 not wise to attempt to breed them in the autumn or 

 winter, the best time being about April or May, so that 

 they may have the warm weather before them. 



At first the kittens show very little of the character- 

 istic markings, being nearly white when born, with just a 

 shade of lacing on the ears, and do not attain their adult 

 colours until about twelve months old. 



One of the most fatal complaints from which they 

 suffer, and which carries off many kittens and even adults, 

 is worms, but I should think if taken in time by adminis- 

 tration of some form of vermifuge, in small doses, this 

 might be overcome ; it is also a cause of much trouble 

 with dogs. 



A friend of mine who has had some experience of the 

 variety, says they are much in their habits like other cats, 

 but that strangers notice a peculiar wild animal odour 

 about them, like I have observed with the Russian Blue 

 Short-Hair Cats, and that most of the kittens have a kink 

 in the tail, not always in the same place, being sometimes 

 at the end, at others near the body or in the middle. 



The mothers are fond and devoted to their young, and 



