184 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. 
Winter Circus at Paris some years ago. These 
cats were all of a Dutch breed, which Bonnetty 
says are especially docile; and his method was 
simply patient persistence in informing the cat 
what was wanted of it, and persuading it to 
do that thing. Here whipping and harsh words 
are of no use. Pussy’s nature is quite different 
from the dog’s. If the cat refuses to do what you 
wish, and cannot be coaxed, violence will only 
harden her’ heart. You must simply abandon the 
matter for that time at least. The hardest work 
was to teach the first cat. It required months of 
patient attention. Adding them one by one, he 
found the training of the late recruits much easier, 
because they imitated quickly what the older per- 
formers were doing.. Bonnetty has never been 
able to succeed in teaching Persian or Angora 
cats, and does not find kittens much more ready 
to learn than full-grown cats. He says, also, that 
some cats, able and willing to go through their 
antics well in private, cannot be induced to attempt 
them amid the noise and glare of the circus. 
There were fifteen or twenty cats in his troupe. 
When the curtain rose a flock of canaries was seen 
perched upon a cord stretched across the stage. 
Near them some white mice and dappled gray 
rats were resting quietly. M. Bonnetty opened 
the door of the cats’ palace, and in Indian file all 
the artists marched slowly out, striding over the 
rodents and birds, some of which flew off and fear- 
