

136 THIRSTY ANIMALS 



weather, to the household pussy, they all drink water 

 regularly, the latter two or three times a day. The 

 writer has often watched from the high-level railways 

 the London cats belonging to the small tenements 

 taking their mid-day drink of water in hot weather. 

 They spring from the dividing walls on to the small 

 water-cisterns, alighting neatly on the space between 

 the cover of the cistern and the wall, and, leaning over, 

 lap the water. Many people imagine that cats prefer 

 milk to quench their thirst, and never provide them 

 with water-pans. This is a mistake ; the cats, like 

 the tigers and jaguars, prefer water, and the numerous 

 cases of cats upsetting and breaking flower-vases on 

 tables are usually due, not to mischief, but to the cat's 

 efforts to drink the water in which the flowers are set. 

 It is noticed that Persian cats are more eager for water 

 than others. Experience shows that horses must not be 

 allowed to drink freely before or immediately after hard 

 riding or driving ; but this, too, is in keeping with their 

 natural, or perhaps we should say their acquired, habits 

 when originally wild. If, as is probably the case, the wild 

 horses lived in the Central Asian steppes, like the kiang, 

 or Central Asian wild ass, water can never have been 

 plentiful ; and, like the African antelopes and zebras, the 

 originals of the species probably drank only once in the 

 twenty-four hours, going to considerable distances to 

 obtain water. Another probable survival is the horse's 



