BOTANIC GARDENS MENAGERIE.' 151 



On one occasion it got out of its cage in the gardens into a 

 gallery at the back of the cages and no one could catch it. 

 When I cornered it and stooped down to pick it up it sprang 

 over my head, but it did not attempt to bite or scratch. It 

 must have been 12 or 13 years old when it died, and I believe 

 then it was killed by a cobra or other poisonous snake. An- 

 other kitten of the same species which was being trained to 

 eat cooked meat, which is popularly supposed to induce tame- 

 ness, died in the same way. The animals perfectly well on the 

 previous night, were found with the head enormously swollen 

 ne*xt day and died very shortly. 



On one or two occasions there was an outbreak of a very- 

 infectious disease among the cats, a form of diarrhoea and weak- 

 ness, the cats dying always with their mouths full of the grass 

 of their bedding. At first the disease lasted two or three days 

 before the fatal termination, but later became more rapid, and 

 the last of the cats attacked died in a few hours after it first 

 showed signs of illness. Cats were not rarely sent down from 

 the Peninsula or neighbouring Islands in small cages with a 

 putrid fowl in the cage for them to eat. When they arrived 

 they were found to have a violent diarrhoea which soon killed 

 them. Being usually very wild it was difficult to give them 

 any medicine, as they could not be handled. They were dosed 

 by dipping a stick wrapped in cloth into the medicine and 

 presenting it to the cat which bit it furiously so that the 

 medicine ran down its throat. 



,F. planiceps. 



The stump-tailed cat is a small grey and red cat with a 

 thick blunt tail. It was formerly considered very rare, but at 

 one time was one of the commonest cats sent to the gardens. 

 It is usually a quiet cat, but I never saw one that was really 

 tame. On one occasion a gentleman sent one which he said 

 refused to eat and had eaten nothing for some days. I offered 

 it fish and all kinds of tempting things, for it did not occur to 

 me that the owner had never tried it with raw meat, but this 

 proved to be the case, and when some raw beef was offered, 

 it ate two pounds up as fast as it could. It is useless to try 



E. A. Soc. No. 46, 1906. 



