63 NATURAL HISTORY. 



Equally remarkable as an instance of the transference of maternal affection is the tale of the Cat 

 whose kittens were replaced by two out of the five pups belonging to a Spaniel. The Cat brought up 

 her foster children so well, that they were able to run about long before the three left under the charge 

 of their own natural mother. Before long they were removed, and the Cat was inconsolable, until, one 

 day, coming across the Spaniel and her pups, she concluded that the latter were her own lost darlings, 

 and in her eagerness to get them engaged in two successive fights with the Spaniel, in each of which 

 she was victorious, and after each of which she carried away a pup to her own premises, thus getting 

 again, as she thought, her own two children, and the Spaniel being obliged to content herself with one. 



This last anecdote is also remarkable because of the wonderful instinctive antipathy existing 

 between Dogs and Cats, an antipathy which is one of the most curious instances of inherited instinct, 

 for a young kitten, who has never seen a Dog in its life will, on being approached by one, put up its 

 back, and swear and spit with all the force of feline Billingsgate. It is only after living in the same 

 house with a Dog for some time that a Cat will become reconciled to him, but when she once gets to 

 tolerate his presence, the two often become very good friends. 



The most astonishing tale we have met with, with respect to their intelligence and sensibility, 

 is one by Mr. C. H. Ross. He states that a Cat in his possession " would climb upon the top of 

 the piano, and, sitting close underneath the picture " of a Bulldog, " fix its eyes upon the Dog's face, 

 and, putting back its ears, remain there, with a wild and terrified expression, for as long as an hour 

 at a time," and this, too, while there were two living Dogs in the house with whom she was on 

 perfectly good terms. This is extraordinary enough, for it is usually stated that animals do not 

 recognise pictures unless they are coloured, and the illustration in question was an engraving. But 

 the queerest part of the story is yet to come. " During the time that he noticed this conduct on the 

 Cat's part, she was with kitten, and when the four kittens were born they were dead, and one of them, 

 strange to say, had a Bull-dog-shaped head, marked almost exactly like the picture ! " 



Instances are not wanting in which Cats have formed friendships with birds creatures which, as 

 a rule, they look upon as their natural prey. One example of an affection of this sort is extremely 

 curious. A Cat and a Canary had acquired a great fondness for one another. The Canary used to perch 

 on the Cat's back and play all sorts of pranks with it. One day their master saw, with horror, the 

 feline Damon rush upon his passerine Pythias and seize it in his mouth. He naturally thought that 

 at last nature had triumphed over grace, but on looking round saw that another Cat had entered the 

 room, to whose tender mercies the bird-lover would by no means trust his little friend. 



Like its natural enemy the Dog, the Cat is sometimes afflicted with rabies, or madness. Mr. 

 Youatt, a great authority on the subject, says : " Fortunately for us this does not often occur ; for a 

 mad Cat is a truly ferocious animal. I have seen two cases, one of them to my cost ; yet I am unable 

 to give any satisfactory account of the progress of the disease. The first stage seems to be one of 

 sullenness, and which would probably last to death ; but from that sullenness it is dangerous to rouse 

 the animal. It probably would not, except in the paroxysm of rage, attack any one ; but during that 

 paroxysm it has no fear, nor has its ferocity any bounds. 



" A Cat that had been the inhabitant of a nursery, and the playmate of the children, had all at 

 once become sullen and ill-tempered. It had taken refuge in an upper room, and could not be coaxed 

 from the comer in which it had crouched. It was nearly dark when I went. I saw the horrible glare 

 of her eyes, but I could not see so much of her as I wished, and I said that I would call again in the 

 morning. I found the patient on the following day precisely in the same situation and the same 

 attitude, crouched up in a corner, and ready to spring. I was very much interested in the case ; and 

 as I wanted to study the countenance of this demon, for she looked like one, I was foolishly, 

 inexcusably imprudent. I went on my hands and knees, and brought my face nearly on a level 

 with hers, and gazed on those glaring eyes and that horrible countenance, until I seemed to feel the 

 deathly influence of a spell stealing over me. I was not afraid, but every mental and bodily 

 power was, in a manner, suspended. My countenance, perhaps, alarmed her, for she sprang on 

 me, fastened herself on my face, and bit through both my lips. She then darted down-stairs, and, I 

 believe, was never seen again. I always have nitrate of silver in my pocket ; even now I am never 

 without it. I washed myself and applied the caustic with some severity to the wound ; and my medical 

 adviser and valued friend, Mr. Millington, punished me still more after I got home. My object was 



