The Domestic Cat. 39 
before I became aware that I had taken up my abode near a 
paradise for cats. Day and night they patrolled the walls of 
the garden, making the air resound with those mysterious noises 
which no mortal has ever yet been able to interpret—which may 
represent either the height of feline felicity or the tortures of a 
feline Inferno. On human ears the effect is disastrous. Looking 
out of my window one morning, I beheld, sitting on a wall near 
the back door of a house, within a very short distance, seventeen 
cats of every variety of colour. By and by, as I gazed in much 
astonishment, an old woman came out with a tray of food and 
distributed it among the expectant multitude. The sleepless 
nights and unquiet days I passed need not be described. 
Remonstrance with any person who keeps seventeen cats, and 
is thus insensible to the comfort of her neighbours, is out of 
the question. JI derived some compensation, however, from 
abundant opportunities for studying the habits of the cat, when 
following its own instincts, never before presented to me. 
In the first place, then, the cat, when not dozing on the 
hearthrug, is, to all intents and purposes, a wild animal. Its 
ferocious character does not seem to have become much modified 
by contact with man, whom it regards asa relieving officer 
destined to supply it with food and shelter, and by whom it will, 
when in a good temper, allow itself to be fondled; going its own 
way, permitting no control, and expressing scarcely any grati- 
tude fur, or even sense of, benefits conferred. It rarely indicates 
that confidence in man so characteristic of the dog and the 
horse. We can do next to nothing for it in sickness or when 
injured, because it resents every attempt to relieve it, and 
rewards its would-be benefactor by sticking its tenter hooks 
into his flesh. It cannot learn consideration for animals equally 
enjoying the protection of its master. The rabbit-hutch or bird- 
cage is certain sooner or later to be invaded by the cat, and the 
pet of the children to be ruthlessly murdered on the first 
favourable opportunity, though the intentions of the destroyer 
have been dissembled until a sense of complete security prevails. 
One morning, the children come down to feed their pet canary. 
