THE CAT. 



The Cat, though fo ufeful a domeftic, feems perfectly untraceable, or 

 incapable of any attachment unconnected with its own eafe, comfort, or 

 gratification. Its difingenuity of character has been thought to be pourtrayed 

 in the obliquity of its movements, and the ambiguity of its looks; but this 

 delicate, cleanly, and voluptuous animal, feeking the fofteft and warmer! 

 places to repofe on, though fo active and fierce, is timid and miftrultful, 

 dreading blows and every violence; feeling, as it were, confcious of its 

 weaknefs and the tendernefs of its (kin, which alfo may account for its 

 great antipathy to water, humidity, and cold. Though peculiarly fond of 

 fim, it very feldom ventures to wet its foot by feizing them in their own 

 element; though inftances have fometimes occurred to the contrary. The 

 Cat, different from other carnivorous animals, has its claws retractile. It 

 can bend them backwards, and fix them between its toes, when it has no 

 occafion for them. This preferves their edge and their point, and enables 

 the animal to tread without noife, and to touch foftly. The Cat's eyes 

 thine in the dark; its hair, when rubbed, emits electric fparks, and, on the 

 approach of a florm, it is obferved to fhew its ienfibility of the change in the 

 atmofphere, by its rubbing and warning its face with its fore feet. 



Cats are about eighteen months in acquiring their full growth; but are 

 capable of propagation in twelve, and retain this faculty nine or ten years, 

 nearly the term of their life. The female goes with young from fifty-five to 

 fifty-eight days, producing four or five at a litter. 



The old popular tale of Whittington and his Cat may be a fiction, or not 

 traceable to any good authority; but this animal was once of fuch great 

 account in our ifland, that we cannot but fuppofe that the creature, which 

 multiplied fo fait, muft then have been but lately imported. In the tenth 

 century, the Welch prince Hoel Adda, or Howel the Good, among his 

 laws relating to the prices, &c. of animals, included that of the Cat, and 

 defcribed its neceffary qualities. The price of a kitten before it could fee 

 was to be a penny; till it caught a mouie, twopence; when it commenced 

 moufer, fourpence; which at that day were confiderable fums: but it was 

 required that it mould be perfect in its fenfes of feeing and hearing, be a 



