300 



THE BOOK OF THE CAT. 



are the length and slenderness of his limbs, 

 the extreme shortness of his coat, and his 

 thin and tapering tail, which reminds the 

 observer of that of a pointer. His ears are 

 small, but as a kitten they were of enormous 

 size, and with his long and pointed head gave 

 him a most weird appearance. The voice of 

 this cat is very variable, and far more resembles 

 the raucous call of the Siamese than the voice 

 of any European cat. 



This cat has had a very adventurous exist- 

 ence. He, with his litter sister, was originally 

 stolen from a hotel in Bombay by an English 

 sailor. On the way home he twice fell over- 

 board, but, more fortunate than his com- 

 panion, was safely rescued. He also suffered 

 shipwreck in the Sobraon on Yung Yung 

 Island. On arriving nearer home he dis- 

 appeared, and was only after several days' 

 absence discovered in the bowels of the ship, 

 as black as the coal amongst which he had 

 been sojourning. His last exploit was to fall 

 in the docks, after which the sailor handed him 

 over to a shoemaker at Leytonstone, where he 

 was discovered by his present owner. After 

 he had twice escaped from bondage and aston- 

 ished the natives of that place by perambulat- 

 ing the housetops, lamenting in the tones of 



AFRICAN CAT. 

 (Photo: E. Landor, Ealing.) 



a lost soul, his owner arrived at the conclusion 

 that he had no convenience for restraining 

 him, and at last yielded to persuasion, and 

 handed him over to his present proprietors 

 for consideration of sundry gold coins of the 

 realm and a kitten with seven toes on each 

 foot. 



It is a very remarkable thing that the Asiatic 

 cats are so subject to abnormal formations of 

 the tail. The Siamese cats, as is well known, 

 very frequently possess kinked tails. In 

 Burma also cats are found some tail-less, 

 some with crooked or twisted stumps. These 

 cats, when spotted, are very striking ; when 

 of an ordinary colour they simply recall an 

 indifferent Manx. 



Japan also possesses tail-less cats ; but 

 those with ordinary caudal appendages also 

 occur, and are probably the most numerous. 

 There is said to be a variety of Chinese cat 

 which is remarkable for its pendent ears. We 

 have never been able to ascertain anything 

 definite with regard to this variety. Some 

 years back a class was provided for them at a 

 certain Continental cat show, and we went 

 across in the hope of seeing and, if possible, 

 acquiring some specimens ; but, alas, the class 

 was empty ! We have seen a stuffed specimen 

 in a Continental museum, which was a half- 

 long-haired cat, the ears being pendent down 

 the sides of the head instead of erect ; but do 

 not attach much value to this. 



We have seen specimens of a very tiny 

 domestic cat, full-grown individuals of which 

 weigh only about three pounds. Those we 

 saw came from South America. 



A cat called the Mombassa cat, from the 

 East of Africa, is said to have a short coat of a 

 wiry texture. There are, of course, no cats 

 indigenous to Australia. An American writer 

 gives it as his opinion that a certain strain of 

 Australian cats is derived from imported 

 Siamese cats. A specimen we possessed last 

 year, which was born on a ship during the 

 passage from Australia, and which exactly 

 resembled its dam, certainly had every appear- 

 ance of being of Eastern origin. It had the 

 marten-shaped head, and a triple kink in the 



