210 NATURE STUDIES. 



cry of the same man. A dozen men may walk up 

 and down the same street with the tempting morsels, 

 crying "meat, meat! " but only at those houses which 

 they are accustomed to serve will the cats be roused 

 by the call. No sooner does the proper man arrive 

 in the street than every cat he is accustomed to serve 

 rushes frantically to the door, or, if allowed, into the 

 street, running mewing towards him, rubbing against 

 his legs, or sometimes sitting in a begging attitude 

 before him, but never, as far as I have observed,, 

 attempting to steal from the open basket. 



One day I noticed a cat whose man had either for- 

 gotten her portion or had been unable to make her 

 mistress hear, and so had passed on. The cat, how- 

 ever, insisted on being attended to ; she ran after 

 him, mewing piteously, and when at last she made 

 him understand, she ran back to the house before 

 him, where by that time the mistress was ready to take 

 the delicacy so much prized by all London cats, how- 

 ever well fed. I have often watched this act of 

 discrimination in our own cat. Tom would sit quietly 

 dozing whilst man after man went by with the f amilar 

 cry of " Meat, meat I" but presently he would jump up, 

 rush to the window, and remain in a state of great 

 excitement, and soon after a distant cry of "Meat !' r 

 might be heard, and we knew that Tom had recognised 

 his own man long before we had heard him. As the 

 cry drew nearer, Tom's excitement increased, and he 

 would almost fly to the door. A singular fact remains 

 to be told. On Saturdays the man would leave two 



