MAMMALS AS PETS 385 



their uniform, and often dark, fawn colour, their blue eyes, and 

 the presence of two or more perfectly bald spots on the forehead. 

 Siam, together with Burma, also possesses a breed known as the 

 Malay cat, in which the tail is but of half the usual length, and 

 is often, through deformity in its bones, tightly curled up into 

 a knot." 



The present writer is not a great lover of cats, but, desiring 

 to be just, adds the following appreciation by Romanes (in Animal 

 Intelligence) of this domestic carnivore: " The cat is unques- 

 tionably a highly intelligent animal, though, when contrasted 



Fig. F272. Persian Cat 



with its great domestic rival the dog, its intelligence, from being 

 cast in quite a different mould, is very frequently underrated. 

 Comparatively unsocial in temperament, wanderingly predaceous 

 in habits, and lacking in the affectionate docility of the canine 

 nature, this animal has never in any considerable degree been 

 subject to the psychological transforming influences whereby a 

 prolonged and intimate association with man has so profoundly 

 modified the psychology of the dog. Nevertheless, the cat is 

 not only by nature an animal remarkable for intelligence, but, 

 in spite of its naturally imposed disadvantage of temperament, 

 has not altogether escaped those privileges of nurture which 

 unnumbered centuries of domestication could scarcely fail to 

 supply. Thus, as contrasted with most of the wild species of 

 the genus when tamed from their youngest days, the domestic 

 cat is conspicuously of less uncertain temper towards its masters 



