AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
39 
date the time by half a century, as state the true year of 
their attempts at immortality.” In conclusion, we cannot 
help remarking, that Providence, as it were, to show us the 
small value of animal existence, abstractly considered, has 
bestowed great longevity on a reptile that squanders 
away more than two-thirds of its life in the most pro- 
found torpor, and in joyless stupidity. 
Hints respecting the Domestic Cat. — As it is not my 
intention to write the natural history of the domestic cat, I 
shall not assert with many authors, that the wild cat, which 
is confined to the woods of Europe and Asia, is the parent 
stock of the whole race; nor will I attempt to decide on 
that particular species which was brought by the Indians 
to Columbus, when he discovered America. Thus much, 
however, I may say, that wild cats are found in almost 
every country and climate. My present design confines 
me to the common house cat, called by the familiar name 
of tortoise-shell,* * * § tabby, or puss. Though Soninit has 
given puss traits of character which place him in a most 
amiable and interesting point of view, I feel compelled, 
though I -do it with great reluctance, to pronounce him un- 
grateful, ungenerous, and deceitful; though with all these 
abominable qualities, an important domestic. But this is 
all foreign to the subject: My present intention is to in- 
quire into the cause of some signs which the cat exhibits, 
at particular stages of the weather. 
Linnaeus gives, as one of the specific characteristics of 
the domestic cat, that he washes his face and behind his 
ears with his forefeet at the approach of a storm . X How- 
ever strange or fanciful this may appear, there is, I think, 
no doubt of the fact. I have observed it often, and have 
found it an unerring prognostic of falling weather ; in 
winter, of snow, and in summer, of rain. I shall now offer 
what I think a sufficient explanation of this remarkable 
fact. We know that some animals have a greater capacity 
for electricity, and exhibit much stronger signs of it, than 
others. The gymnotus electricus, or electrical eel, will 
give a shock to any number of persons, in the same man- 
ner as the leyden jar. The electrical properties of the 
torpedo, or cramp-fish, are so remarkable, that for a long 
time they were considered fabulous. Some other fish 
might be mentioned, as possessing this property. The ex- 
periment of producing sparks of electrical fire, by rubbing 
the back of a cat, is familiar to almost every one;§ the glit- 
* It has been asserted that the tortoise-shell cat is indigenous to Spain and 
that it constitutes a distinct variety of the common species ; this opinion, I 
have good reason to believe, has no sufficient ground for its support. 
-j- See Sonini’s Travels in Egypt. 
t See Turton’s, Linmeus, vol. i. p. 49. 
§ It is said that black cats give out more electric fire than those of any 
other colour. If this be a fact, may it not lead to some important results in 
tering of the eyes by night, may, I think, be also stated 
as another proof of the presence of the fluid. The ears of 
the cat, and some portions of the face, are without hair ; 
such places are good conductors of electricity; but the 
whole body of the animal being enveloped in a hairy co- 
vering, is a non-conductor. If, therefore, the fluid escapes, 
or passes off in any considerable quantity, it must be at 
the ears or face. This can be proved by experiment: 
Upon rubbing the back of the animal in favourable wea- 
ther, and presenting your knuckle to the ear, a spark will 
be received; — a spark, however, cannot be obtained from 
any part of the body, a few scintillations only following 
the hand in the act of rubbing. Cats, we know, have a 
natural antipathy to water and moist air, and delight in dry 
and warm situations. It is hardly necessary to state, that 
a damp atmosphere is one of the best conductors of elec- 
tricity, or that a dry one is necessary for its collection and 
retention. From what has now been advanced, the con- 
clusion is obvious. The vapour or humidity of the air, 
serving as a conductor, draws off or absorbs the electric 
matter from the animal, and the fluid passing off with more 
readiness, and in the greatest quantity, at the ears, must 
occasion sensations in that particular part, either agreeable 
or troublesome, which induces the motion of the fore foot as 
above stated. That some animals are more readily affect- 
ed by changes in the atmosphere than others, and that they 
exhibit signs of these variations, cannot be doubted. The 
difficulty is, to explain with clearness and precision how 
this takes place. Mr. J. Taylor, in an interesting little 
volume, called the Complete weather guide, has given a 
chapter on the common and familiar signs exhibited by 
animals which indicate approaching changes of weather; 
in this chapter, he passes without notice, our friend, the cat. 
RED FLAMINGO. 
PIKE NIC OF TER US RUBER. 
[Plate IV. Vol. 3.] 
Le Flammant, Briss. vi, p. 533, pi. 47, Jig. 1 . — Buff, 
viii, p. 475, pi. 39. PI. Enl. 63. — Lath. Syn. tii, p. 
299. — Arct. Zool. No. 422. — Phcenicopterus Baham- 
ensis , Catesby, i, pi. 73, 74. — Philadelphia Museum. 
This singular but beautiful plumed bird, strictly belongg 
to the North American Ornithology, although it is found 
the construction of electric machines. It has been found that the power of 
a white glass cylinder, is considerably increased by coating the inner surface 
with a coloured electric, such as rosin, or bees-wax. 
