WILD ANIMALS IN CAPTIVITY 
ascertain the most humane and speedy method of killing 
cats, before they condemn an unfortunate amateur, who 
perhaps for the first time in his life, makes the attempt, 
and finds he has made what is considered a cruel failure, 
^and for which he is sometimes unmercifully punished. 
The wild cat {Felis catus) differs in many particulars 
from the domestic cat ; at the same time, they breed freely 
together, and many instances are on record of fertile off- 
spring having been produced. S. E. Pusy, Esq., has bred 
and successfully crossed the wild and domestic cats, 
several of which have been received and exhibited in the 
Gardens. 
There is a great want of intelligence observable among 
the cat tribe, because, during the period that the common 
house cat has kittens, she does not usually know the differ- 
ence between her own young or the young of either rats 
or squirrels, as I have seen a cat suckling both at the same 
time, licking and attending them as her own. 
The variety of the domestic cat known as the tortoise- 
shell ” is, as a rule, a female, the opposite sex being 
represented by the black, sandy, tabby and striped cats. 
Another singular variety of domestic cat is that known 
as the Manx or tailless cat. This variety is certainly 
common in the Isle of Man, but I have seen plenty of 
cats on the island with long tails, and many whose length 
of tail was intermediate, varying from 2 in. to 10 in. 
I have found the temper and disposition among cats to 
be most variable, in fact few animals in my opinion 
present so many individual differences in the same species. 
I have no doubt that the loss of many of the lives of 
human beings who have been attacked by cats is attribut- 
able to the sudden impulsiveness to which all cats are 
liable ; and it is, I consider, at all times dangerous to trust 
even the tamest of lions or tigers. 
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