Quadrupeds. 2253 



and line, with several flower-supports and flower-pots amongst them. On the follow- 

 ing morning all these were rolled away, and things were as before. Puss had been 

 there. I then tried watering of the plants, and several other plans ; but all to no pur- 

 pose : they were every morning found to have been visited by Felis Catus during the 

 preceding night. With the view of proving whether it was the Nemophila itself or 

 the particular spot of ground on which it happened to grow, that puss liked to gambol 

 upon, I dug up all the plant and smoothed the ground ; but it has never been revisited 

 since in the same manner, although on the first morning after that operation a few 

 paw-prints were traced, showing, perhaps, that puss had come to seek her favourite 

 flower, but found it not. I likewise had a plant of the Nemophila removed to another 

 part of the garden, and it had not been long there when it was attacked and destroyed 

 by the cats rolling upon it. I still have a plant of this beautiful flower in full bloom 

 in another border, but it has escaped all feline molestation. For my own part I can- 

 not detect any peculiar scent in the leaves (or flowers either) of the Nemophilla, but it 

 must surely have such to the cat. We are well aware that many odours that are pow- 

 erfully felt by some persons are often but very faintly, and sometimes not at all, felt 

 by others;* and if such differences obtain in the olfactory organs of the different 

 members of the human family, is it not quite reasonable to suppose that differences in 

 these of an equal degree may exist in the different animals, of which class man ranks 

 himself as No. 1 ? — George Lawson ; 212, Perth Road, Dundee, August, 1848. 



P.S. — Subsequently to writing the above I procured a small quantity of the dried 

 roots of valerian, which I offered to our house cat, but she showed no symptoms of 

 concern about it at all. I have been told that cats are equally fond of the dried root 

 as of the fresh plant, but our puss seems to care nothing for it. May it only be some 

 cats whose olfactory organs are excited by the valerian ; and is this excitement pecu- 

 liar to any age or sex ? The particular individual I have referred to is a female, and 

 not as yet full grown. — G. L. 



Carnivorous Propensity of the Hedgehog. — About six weeks ago a female hedgehog 

 was brought to me, with four young ones. One only of the latter I kept. It was 

 placed in a closet in the kitchen, from which it rambled at will through the offices : 

 these were much infested by Blattse, and their numbers were visibly thinned. On 

 Friday night, as the servant was going to bed, she started a mouse in the scullery, 

 which escaped her efforts to catch it: the cat was out on night rambles. On the fol- 

 lowing morning, the servant, on entering the kitchen, found Hoggy on the hearth, 

 making a sucking noise, with a mouse in his grasp, the legs of the mouse still 

 struggling. The servant says the hedgehog appeared to have sucked the blood through 

 a small hole in the neck, that being the only visible injury to the mouse. Hoggy is 

 quite tame, often gnaws a bone, and shows great intelligence. — Thos. F. Reynolds ; 

 Wallington, Surrey, August 24, 1848. 



Escape of a Rhinoceros at Galaway, in America. — " The peaceful village of Gala- 

 way was on Sunday (23rd inst.) thrown into great excitement by a report that a huge 



* I have just been reading an article in Loudon's ' Magazine of Natural History,' 

 by the Rev. W. T. Bree, of Allesley Rectory, which contains some interesting remarks 

 " On the peculiarities in the Scent of some Flowers." For those readers who take in- 

 terest in the subject, I may mention that the article will be found in vol. 5, p. 758. 

 VI 2 Q 



