374 THROUGH CENTRAL BORNEO 



There are always small fish in it, and three or four times 

 a year it is flooded. In dry seasons, although not every 

 year, the water of the sea reaches as far as Mandumei. 



In Bandjermasin my attention was drawn to an inter- 

 esting breed of stump-tailed dogs which belonged to 

 Mr. B. Brouers. The mother is a white terrier which 

 has but half a tail, as if cut off. When she had pups, 

 two had stump tails, two had long ones, and one had 

 none; her sister has no tail. Though the fathers are 

 the ordinary yellowish Dayak dogs with long tails, the 

 breed apparently has taken nothing or next to nothing 

 from them. They are all white, sometimes with hardly 

 noticeable spots of yellow. 



Nobody who has travelled in Borneo can have failed 

 to notice the great number of short-tailed cats. In Band- 

 jermasin those with long tails are very rare, and among 

 Malays and Dayaks I do not remember ever having seen 

 them. They are either stub-tailed or they have a ball 

 at the end of a tail that is usually twisted and exception- 

 ally short. These cats are small and extremely tame, and 

 can hardly be pushed away with a kick, because they have 

 always been used to having their own way in the house. 

 They are more resourceful and enterprising than the 

 ordinary domestic cat, using their claws to an almost 

 incredible extent in climbing down perpendicular wooden 

 walls, or in running under the roof on rafters chasing 

 mice. I have twice photographed such cats, a liberty 

 which they resented by striking viciously at the man who 

 held them and growling all the time. Their accustomed 

 food is rice and dried fish. 



