270 RABBITS, CATS, AND CAVIES 



upon it, we supposed the mother had tired of her 

 maternal cares and restrictions, and considered the 

 shortest way to bring them to an end was to remove 

 the cause. She was accordingly strongly suspected and 

 severely scolded for her unnatural behaviour, but no 

 punishment was administered. 



" Very shortly afterwards, the cat made her way into 

 the dining-room, bearing in her mouth the body of a 

 fine freshly-killed stoat, clearly for the purpose of 

 vindicating her maternal character by the production of 

 the actual murderer of her kitten, whom she had just 

 caught and despatched. 



" Some cats are very fond of exhibiting to their owners 

 the results of their prowess. A large neuter cat of ours 

 used frequently to catch chickens and young pullets and 

 bring them in alive in his mouth to prove how clever he 

 was, though they were always taken from him and restored 

 to the fowl-yard. 



" For some time we had a tame pigeon we called 

 Anthony, who shared the kitchen hearthrug with a 

 cat and her kitten, and if the latter mewed when the 

 mother was absent, Anthony would go in search of her 

 and drive her to the kitten by sweeping her towards it 

 with his tail in the way pigeons are observed to do when 

 driving a hen to her nest." 



I may add a note of my own experience to the above. 

 When we lived at Long Ashton, in Somersetshire, many 

 years since, we had a large female short-haired black cat, 

 and our next neighbour was Farmer Keedwell, whose 

 barton adjoined our orchards, and had a number of ricks 



