Quadrupeds . 2131 



there, quietly demolishing a beef-steak which it had feloniously obtained. The most 

 curious feature in the whole case is, that the cat had been introduced into the house 

 only a short time before, and that bitter enmity prevailed between her and her canine 

 companion. No doubt anecdotes of a similar nature are common enough ; still I ven- 

 ture to send you this, knowing you think such worthy a place in the amusing pages 

 of the 'Zoologist,' where facts, however common, however simple, are accumulated as 

 in a great store-house, from whence the philosophical naturalist may derive materials 

 wherewith to construct a new theory or to support an old one. — E. J. R. Hughes ; 

 St. Beghh, March 31, 1848. 



Anecdote of a Terrier. — On the 19th of May, 1834, a party who had been living 

 at Quedgeley, within two miles of Gloucester, sailed from Bristol to New York, in- 

 tending to settle in one of the western states of America : they took with them a wire- 

 haired terrier bitch, which whelped during the passage. The distance from Quedge- 

 ley to Bristol is 27 miles. From New York they proceeded in a steam-boat up the 

 Hudson to Albany, 190 miles ; thence to Schenectady, 15 miles, by railroad ; to Sy- 

 racuse, 140 miles, by tow boat. In the hurry of disembarking at Syracuse the bitch 

 was missed, and all trace of her lost. Some time after arriving at their destination, 

 one of the party wrote to his father, and amongst other things mentioned the loss of 

 the bitch, which animal, at the moment the letter arrived at Quedgeley, was lying 

 down in front of the kitchen fire of the house she had been originally taken from, 

 having been absent from her original home ten months. It is conjectured (for nothing 

 is known) that she found her way back to New York, aud thence to Bristol, but how 

 or in what ship is a matter of doubt: that she did make this extraordinary tour is be- 

 yond the slightest question. She ended her days in a drain at Quedgeley, being 

 smothered while rat-hunting there in 1841. She was the property of Mr. Richard 

 Guilding, formerly of Quedgeley, who went to St. Louis, in the State of Mississipi, 

 and returned from thence to Hanley Castle, Worcestershire, at which place he is now 

 residing. 



Extraordinary Friendship of a Cat and Turtle Dove. — Well do I recollect return- 

 ing home from school for my Christmas holidays, and finding that our family of cats 

 (housed in our outbuildings, for keeping vermin in minimum) was numerously in- 

 creased ; and my first request was, " Oh, do come and see the kittens." One of the 

 tribe, " a little tabby," was the general favorite ; and he seemed to be somewhat con- 

 scious of this pre-eminence, for he pushed his companions aside, and battled stoutly 

 for a full share of the contents of the milk-pan : the very necessary result was, that 

 " Dick " (for so we named him) grew a fine young cat, and his sleek coat and purring 

 habits, as he came and rubbed his head against your foot, or fondly sprung upon your 

 shoulder and smoothed your cheek, won't easily be forgotten by many who think of 

 early days as lovingly as do I. A friend of ours wanted a cat; and as the well-known 

 tenderness of this family was almost proverbial, we decided upon sending them Dick 

 as a present. Oh ! what a sensation it caused when we put him in the basket for his 

 new destination ! and what thoughts we entertained upon the probability of seeing 

 him in his old haunts one morning, he having found 



" There was no place like home ; " 



but we were not acquainted with cat nature so well as we opined ; for Dick had sense, 

 like many men, to keep a " good berth " when they have found one. He was put on a 

 little soft stool before the fire, fondled, petted and spoiled ; for there he sat all day long 



