HOUSE CAT. 95 



I have known a dove -house infested by a pair 

 of white owls, which made great havock among 

 the young pigeons : one of the owls was shot as 

 soon as possible ; but the survivor readily found a 

 mate, and the mischief went on. After some 

 time the new pair were both destroyed, and the 

 annoyance ceased. 



Another instance I remember of a sportsman, 

 whose zeal for the increase of his game being 

 greater than his humanity, after pairing time, he 

 always shot the cock bird of every couple of par- 

 tridges upon his grounds ; supposing that the 

 rivalry of many males interrupted the breed. He 

 used to say, that, though he had widowed the same 

 hen several times, yet he found she was still pro- 

 vided with a fresh paramour, that did not take her 

 away from her usual haunt. 



Again ; I knew a lover of setting, an old sports- 

 man, who has often told me that soon after harvest 

 he has frequently taken small coveys of partridges, 

 consisting of cock birds alone ; these he pleasantly 

 used to call old bachelors. 



There is a propensity belonging to common 

 house cats that is very remarkable ; I mean their 

 violent fpndness for fish, which appears to be their 

 most favourite food ; and yet nature in this in- 

 stance seems to have planted in them an appetite 

 that, unassisted, they know not how to gratify : 

 for of all quadrupeds, cats are the least disposed 

 towards water ; and will not, when they can avoid 

 it, deign to wet a foot, much less to plunge into 

 that element 1 . 



1 In the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, on the au- 

 thority of Dr. Darwin, cats fish : he says, " Mr. Leonard, 

 a very intelligent friend of mine, saw a cat catch a trout by 

 darting upon it in a deep clear water, at the mill at Weaford, 



