415 



CHAPTER OF VARIETIES. 



Anecdote of the domestic cat. — The sagacity of animals in 

 shunning disease has been observed by several naturalists, particularly 

 among gregarious animals, who are constantly found to avoid such as are 

 affected with any complaint. Domestic animals are not generally so 

 remarkable for this propensity, as their habits are associated with 

 those of man. A cat I have, however, has exhibited a remarkable 

 instance of sagacity during the present epidemic. She had been in the 

 practice of coming up to my bed-room every morning to drink out of my 

 ewer ; but during the continuance of the febrile symptoms attending 

 the influenza, she did not come to drink, and never entered the room. 

 No sooner, however, had the fever subsided, than she immediately re- 

 turned, and took her morning draught as usual. This shows that the 

 senses of animals, particularly that of smell, must be extremely acute, 

 and that the diseased atmosphere, however insensible we may be to its 

 effect, has a powerful influence on their more acute organs. 



E. G. Ballard. 



Islington, August 1, 1833. 



The fox. — The keen senses of this animal form one of the most 

 distinguishing characteristics and marks of the genus. His predatory 

 habits render it necessary that he should be equally prepared for the 

 attack of his prey or speedy flight. The acuteness of his sight and 

 smell are very remarkable, as well as his agility and suppleness of limb, 

 which enables him to enter passages which would seem impassable to 

 his bulk. To these qualifications, rather 'than to any preternatural 

 mental endowment, may be attributed the greater part of those tales of 

 his cunning so plentifully recorded by authors. The singular story of 

 the arctic foxes related by Bingley, on the authority of Steller, may, I 

 think, be reasonably questioned, as its particulars are so strongly tinctured 

 with the marvellous. 



But in this animal, as in many others, we find nature has provided 

 compensation. The rattle-snake is furnished in its moveable rings with 

 an instrument, the noise of which seems as a warning to the inferior 

 animals that would become its prey ; and the body of the fox exhales a 

 foetid odour, most probably destined for a similar purpose. It may be 

 for this reason also that it seeks concealment during the day, in holes 



