THE CAT TO-DAY 263 



well deny the animosity of Celt and Saxon, on the 

 score of individual friendship, or chance deed of 

 mercy. Like the deep-rooted hatred of nations, 

 alien in race, yet thrust by fate upon one another's 

 border lands, is the hatred that never sleeps in the 

 hearts of these sworn enemies. The dog, a gen- 

 erous and chivalric beast, degenerates into a cruel 

 bully the instant that he sees a cat. The cat, 

 brave and courteous, falls into a sheer frenzy of 

 rage and fear when she encounters her ancestral 

 foe. St. George Mivart tells us that this antipathy 

 — the inheritance of ages — is so strong in kittens 

 only a few days old, that they have manifested 

 both anger and terror, spitting with comical fury 

 when touched by a hand that had recently fondled 

 a dog. 



Mr. Louis Robinson, in his interesting volume on 

 " Wild Traits in Tame Animals," asserts that the 

 spitting of young kittens, and their beautiful striped 

 fur, are both due to "protective mimicry," nature's 

 clever scheme for the deception of her stronger 

 children, and the preservation of her weaker ones. 

 She taught the kitten in its savage state to spit 

 when disturbed or frightened, so that prowling ene- 

 mies, like dog or wolf, might mistake the sound for 

 the hissing of snakes ; and she banded its fur so 

 that birds of prey, glancing down from afar, might 

 think the helpless creature a coiled serpent, and 



