SIOBIES OF BEUASKABLB CATS. 



The writer has, in his time, made the acqnaintauce of some 

 queerish oats. When qndte a little boy there was attached to 

 onr house a gaunt black and white cat, whose sole recommenda- 

 tion was that he was a magnificent mouser; nay to such 

 lengths would he carry his passion for hunting as regularly 

 to haunt a ditch that existed in the neighbourhood for the pur- 

 pose of pursuing and capturing water-rats, which class of 

 vermin it dispatched in a manner that at once secured the 

 death of the rat and himself immunity from the rat's teeth. 

 Seizing the animal by the back of the neck, the cat, by a 

 sudden wriggle, threw himself on his back, at once transferred 

 the custody of the rat from his mouth to his fore-paws, holding 

 it neatly behind the shoulders, while with his hind talons he 

 cruelly assailed the unlucky animal's loins and ribs tiU it 

 ceased to struggle. I have stated that the cat in question was 

 attached to our house, and that certainly was the extent of 

 his intimacy, for he was attached to nobody residing there. 

 Myself he particularly disliked, and although he never con- 

 sidered it beneath his dignity to steal any aiticle of food from 

 me, would never accept my overtures of friendship. I have 



reason to liolieve that his special dislike for me arose out of a 

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