176 DISTINCTION IN CATS. 



most ferociously, inflicting very severe wounds on 

 his face, and then escaped. 



Being a great lover of cats, and a constant keeper 

 of them, I long since made the discovery, that rat- 

 catching is a peculiar qualification which nature has 

 bestowed on only one part of the species ; and though 

 the other part may be good mousers, they will not 

 attack a rat, at any rate a second time. My 

 little black cat, ' Sweet Sish,' between which and 

 my trotting mare ' Betty Bios,' there subsisted so 

 great aifection, must have saved me a consider- 

 able sum, during the nine years she lived with 

 me in Surrey. Her constant and excessive atten- 

 tion to the pursuit of her game, at length de- 

 stroyed her health, and ended her life; not that 

 it is probable she fed on the rats she killed, a 

 diet generally so injurious to cats, since she always 

 dieted with us, as a thrice worthy member of the 

 family. She readily took the water and swam 

 well. Her stock were all rat cats, some of them, 

 in particular, of high qualification. Finally, certain 

 of the sagacious methods of taking and destroy- 

 ing rats, recommended in books, remind me of an 

 appropriate passage in Hudibras 



" He made a planetary gin, 

 Which rats would run their own heads in, 

 And come on purpose to be taken, 

 Without the expense of cheese or bacon." 



The same for taking partridges and other game ; 

 good parallels to the ancient nursery plan, of catch- 



