^2 Chapters on Animals. 



of these chapters. It is wonderful to think how much 

 that good lady must have known of the loveableness of 

 cats, of those recondite qualities which may endear them 

 to the human heart ! 



What a difference in knowledge and feeling concerning 

 cats between Mrs. Griggs and a gamekeeper ! The game- 

 keeper knows a good deal about them too, but it is not 

 exactly affection which has given keenness to Ids obser- 

 vation. He does not see a " dear sweet pet " in every cat 

 that crosses his woodland path, but the most destructive 

 of poachers, the worst of "vermin." And there can be 

 no doubt that from his point of view the gamekeeper is 

 quite right, even as good Mrs. Griggs may have been from 

 hers. If cats killed game from hunger only, there would 

 be a limit to their depredations, but unfortunately they 

 have the instinct of sport, which sportsmen consider a 

 very admirable quality in themselves, but regard with the 

 strongest disapprobation in other animals. Mr. Frank 

 Buckland says, that when once a cat has acquired the 

 passion for hunting it becomes so strong that it is impos- 

 sible to break him of it. He knew a cat which had been 

 condemned to death, but the owner begged its life on con- 

 dition that it should be shut up every night and well fed. 

 The very first night of its incarceration it escaped up the 

 chimney, and was found the next morning, black with 

 soot, in one of the gamekeeper's traps. The keeper 

 easily determines what kind of animal has been committing 

 depredations in his absence. " Every animal has his own 

 way of killing and eating his prey. The cat always turns 

 the skin inside out, leaving the same reversed like a glove. 

 The weasel and stoat will eat the brain and nibble about 

 the head, and suck the blood. The fox will always leave 

 the legs and hinder parts of a hare or a rabbit ; the dog 



