90 Atf INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



numerous, many of them having been destroyed by 

 man. So the rabbits are not checked, and their 

 natural advantage, that of breeding very rapidly, 

 enables them to over-ran the place and crowd out the 

 animals that preceded them. Similarly in England 

 the introduction of the European grey rat resulted in 

 its spreading very rapidly, and driving out the English 

 black rat, which was reduced in number. Another 

 curious instance of the same thing is the history of 

 the Manx cat. This by no means pretty variety of 

 the "harmless necessary" pussy is believed to have been 

 introduced from Spain, where a similar variety is said 

 to be found,^ by a ship of the Spanish Armada, which 

 was wrecked on the south coast of the Isle of Man, 

 giving a name to a cliff which is still called Spanish 

 Head. It afterwards spread over the whole island, 

 besides supplying innumerable emigrants, which may 

 be found in the possession of cat fanciers in many parts 

 of England, especially among the northern counties. 

 So prevalent did the tailless cat become, that the Manx 

 people began within recent years to import tailed cats 

 from England as a change. The tailless variety, estab- 

 lished as an insular race, was now not so strong as the 

 ordinary sort imported from the larger island, and 

 therefore the tailless cats are now becoming rare acain, 



' A variety of tailless cats is said to exist also in Japan. 

 "Whether the disappearance of the tail is due to inherited 

 mutilation, to a correlation with the peculiar gait of the 

 animal, or to a merely accidental variation, is uncertain. 



