54 



KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



' Banks and Braes.' " To cure cats of the pro- 

 pensity to attack pet birds has always, therefore, 

 been a matter of effort ; and a variety of expe- 

 dients — such as heating the bars of the cages, and 

 burning the cat's nose against them — are more or 

 less in request. Some of these are cruel, and none 

 of them I believe to be really needful. The first 

 thing to be done, to keep cats from birds, is to 

 take care that the cats are well fed, and that no 

 hungry fit may occasionally prompt a breach of 

 moral duties ; the second is to familiarise the two 

 classes of creatures, and accustom them to each 

 other's presence. Most birds are killed by cats 

 with empty stomachs, and by those who have not 

 undergone the sort of socialising process which I 

 have described. I have seen people drive away 

 cats for merely looking at caged birds. This is 

 quite a mistaken plan. Unless the passion of 

 hunger be roused in the creature, ten to one it is 

 only satisfying its curiosity by the mere contem- 

 plation of the " little warbler." At all events, in 

 my own experience, without any particular 

 training, except kind treatment, and often putting 

 the cages, with their occupants, on the table for 

 the cat's inspection, the creatures appear to have 

 got so companionable that I have no scruple in 

 leaving some half-dozen birds within the reach of 

 three cats. The animals frequently sit and look 

 at each other ; and a green parrot, with a great 

 talent for biting, has regularly a snap at any 

 whisking tail or incautious paw which may be 

 found within the limits of her very powerful organ. 

 Sometimes this creature will sit quietly on a cat's 

 back, and people have wondered how it was 

 " tamed and taught " to do so. There was no 

 " taming " or " teaching " in the case ; further, 

 indeed, than good feeding, and, as it were, making 

 the creatures acquainted and familiar — the birds 

 with the beasts. The cat, to win his affection, 

 must be more sedulously attended to than the 

 dog. There is no doubt, indeed, that the grati- 

 tude of the one creature is far more easily evoked 

 than that of the other. A dog will often follow a 

 stranger along a street, if tempted by a bit of 

 food. Dog stealers are tolerably well acquainted 

 with the fact; but a cat will do nothing of the 

 sort. Dogs yield to the first kind word or friendly 

 pat. The majority do so, at all events; cats do 

 not fling their friendship away so lightly. True, 

 when won, it is neither so trusty, so pure, nor so 

 elevated as the dog's ; but the peculiar character 

 of the creature — its coy, yet by no means fickle 

 nature — its suspicious, yet, under certain cir- 

 cumstances, confiding disposition — its peculiar 

 refinement of taste — (a dog gobbles its meat, like 

 a coalheaver over a steak. A well-brought-up cat 

 takes dinner coolly, like a gourmet over a pate de 

 foie gras) — and, finally, the general grace and 

 gliding ease of posture of the creature — its pecu- 

 liar cleanliness, and its marked adaptability for 

 household purposes — all these qualities ought, 

 surely, to elevate puss a step higher in social esti- 

 mation than it has yet ascended. — A. B. R. 



[Admitting much of the above to be true, we 

 cannot allow that dogs generally are so easily 

 cajoled as is here hinted at. A good dog is very 

 faithful, and will not follow a stranger. Nor do 

 we at all approve of cats ("under any circum- 

 stances) being domesticated where there are 

 birds in the family. The cat is a vile deceiver — 



a perfect Jesuit. You are never sure of her. 

 Whilst lying in your bosom, she is perhaps quietly 

 planning how to destroy (unobserved) the dearest 

 of your pet canaries. We would quite as soon 

 admit an emissary of the Church of Rome into our 

 family as a cat, — if that cat had any private view 

 to carry out. We are not at all surprised at the 

 complaints we receive from so many families 

 about losses by cats ; nor do we pity the sufferers. 

 How can we? It is their own fault entirely .J 



Life in Man and Beast. — We are too much in 

 the habit, my dear sir, of taking it for granted that 

 all creatures live at the same rate. But, if we con- 

 sider analogy, we shall be forced to admit that 

 some animals live " faster," and some " slower" 

 than ourselves. Life, like every thing in nature, 

 is comparative. The ephemera of a summer-day 

 may, in the circumscribed compass of a few hours, 

 run through a whole life-time of joy and sorrow ; 

 all the history of a life being compacted into so 

 small a space of time that years become minutes. 

 Life is not a state of rest ; but of incessant 

 operation. It is a continual circulation of action 

 and being. It is a compound of working powers, 

 maintained by one principle, for one end. Every 

 thing bodily in man is subject to changes and 

 alterations. Every thing on which the vital 

 principle exercises its action is in a continual 

 alternation of increase and decrease ; of loss 

 and reparation. Scarcely have a few years 

 elapsed before our substance is entirely renewed, — 

 again re-created from the surrounding elements ! 

 You will call me a "female philosopher." Be 

 it so ! I love Our Journal at all events ; 

 and am delighted to see how it ranges over the 

 world, doing good without end. A Happy New 

 Year to it, — and to its Editor! — Emily P., 

 Carshalton. 



[Oh,— Emily! Well; dumb though we be, 

 let— 



" Expressive silence muse thy praise ! " 



It in highly gratifying to find so many fair hands 

 and tender hearts at work for us. We ac- 

 knowledge it gratefully. May thy example be 

 follow< 'd by many others, possessed of hearts like 

 thine !J 



Eggs of a Bullfinch sucked by a Slug, — A 

 curious " FactT — In the month of May, last year, 

 I found a bullfinch's nest (containing four eggs) 

 built in a rose-bush, which was trained over an 

 arch in one of our garden paths. Being anxious 

 to save the young, I was careful not to go near 

 the place ; lest I should scare the old ones, who 

 were for several days to be seen constantly near 

 their nest. A short time afterwards, I missed 

 them ; and thinking it possible that they had been 

 disturbed by the cats, I examined the nest, and to 

 my threat surprise found in it a huge slug Limax 

 ater) in the act of sucking the eggs ; three of 

 which he had finished, and was then operating 

 on the fourth. In each of the eggs that were 

 sucked, was a small hole (about the eighth of an 

 inch in diameter), through which he had abstracted 

 the contents. On raising him up with my finger, 

 I found his mouth inserted into a small hole, 

 similar to those in the others, through which he had 

 sucked the yolk and nearly all the white. Having 

 caught this gentleman flagrante delicto, he was 



