Natural History in Anecdote Part 6

"The Serval," says Captain Brown, "is somewhat larger than the ordinary wild cat. Its general colour is a pale fulvous yellow. It resides on trees, where it makes a bed, and breeds its young. It seldom appears on the ground, living princ.i.p.ally on birds, squirrels, and small animals; it is extremely agile, and leaps, with great rapidity, from one branch to another. The serval never a.s.saults man, but rather endeavours to avoid him; if, however, it is compelled to attack, it darts furiously on its antagonist, and bites and tears, like the rest of the cat kind."

The Common Wild Cat.

The common wild cat is one of the few wild animals still to be found in the British Isles. Up till recent years these cats were observed among the woody mountainous districts of c.u.mberland and Westmoreland and in the wild parts of Scotland and Ireland, though as the land is brought more and more under cultivation they decrease in numbers, failing suitable asylum. They abound in the forests of Germany and Russia, where they live in the hollows of trees and caves of rocks, and feed on birds, squirrels, hares and rabbits, and will even attack young lambs and fawns. The wild cat is not to be confused with the domestic cat which has relapsed into a wild state. "In the form and shape of the tail,"

says Sir William Jardine, "this animal somewhat resembles the Lynx. The fur is very thick, woolly and long. The general colour is a greyish yellow, in some specimens inclining much to a shade of bluish grey."--"They spring," says Mrs. Bowdich, "furiously upon whoever approaches, and utter unearthly cries. Mr. St. John, when walking up to his knees in heather over broken ground, came suddenly upon a wild cat.

She rushed out between his legs, every hair standing up. He cut a good-sized stick; and three Skye terriers gave chase till she took refuge in a corner, spitting and growling. On trying to dislodge her, she flew at Mr. St. John's face, over the dogs' heads; but he struck her while in the air, and she fell among the dogs, who soon despatched her, even though it has been said that a wild cat has twelve instead of nine lives. If one of these animals is taken, those in the neighbourhood are sure to be also secured, as they will all, after the manner of foxes, a.s.semble round the body of their relative."

The Domestic Cat.

The origin of the domestic cat is difficult to determine. Cats were numerous in Egypt from an early date, and are said to be native to Syria. According to Professor Rolleston the cat was not domesticated anywhere, except in Egypt, before the Christian Era. Few animals are more familiar to the general reader, and few therefore, need less description. The "Tabby" is perhaps the commonest, though black, white, and tortoise-sh.e.l.l varieties abound. The Angora or Angola cat, the Persian cat, and the Manx cat, which latter is deficient in the useful and ornamental embellishment of a tail, are also well known.

Cat Superst.i.tions.

There are many superst.i.tions concerning the cat, the black variety coming in for the larger share of popular suspicion. To steal one and bury it alive was at one time regarded as a specific against cattle disease in the Irish Highlands, while, according to Captain Brown, it was the practice for families in Scotland to tie up their cats on Hallowe'en to prevent their use for equestrian purposes by witches during the night. "They have always been regarded as attendants upon witches," says Mrs. Bowdich, "and witches themselves have been said to borrow their shapes when on their mysterious expeditions. I was once told that Lord Cochrane was accompanied by a favourite black cat in a cruise through the northern seas. The weather had been most unpropitious; no day had pa.s.sed without some untoward circ.u.mstance; and the sailors were not slow in attributing the whole to the influence of the black cat on board. This came to Lord Cochrane's ears, and knowing that any attempt to reason his men out of so absurd a notion was perfectly useless, he offered to sacrifice this object of his regard, and have her thrown overboard. This, however, far from creating any satisfaction, only alarmed the men still more. They were sure that the tempests she would then raise would be much worse than any they had yet encountered; and they implored his lordship to let her remain unmolested. 'There was no help, and they could only hope, if she were not affronted, they might at the end of their time reach England in safety.'"

The Cat as a Hunter.

"The cat," says the Rev. J. G. Wood, "is familiarly known to us as a persevering mouse-hunter. So strong, indeed, is the pa.s.sion for hunting in the breast of the cat, that she sometimes disdains mice, 'and such small deer,' and trespa.s.ses on warrens or preserves. A large tabby cat, residing at no great distance from White Horse Vale, was accustomed to go out poaching in the preserves of a neighbouring n.o.bleman, and so expert was she at this illegal sport that she constantly returned bearing in her mouth a leveret or a partridge, which she insisted on presenting to her mistress, who in vain endeavoured to check her marauding propensities. These exploits, however, brought their own punishment; for one day, when in the act of seizing a leveret, she found herself caught in a vermin trap, which deprived her of one of her hind legs. This misfortune did not damp her enthusiasm for hunting, as, although the loss of a leg prevented her from chasing hares, and suchlike animals, she would still bring in an occasional rat."

The Cat and her Young.

"A cat, which had a numerous litter of kittens," says Captain Brown, "one sunny day encouraged her little ones to frolic in the vernal beams of noon, about the stable door, where she was domiciled. While she was joining them in a thousand tricks and gambols, a large hawk, who was sailing above the barn-yard, in a moment darted upon one of the kittens, and would have as quickly borne it off, but for the courageous mother, who, seeing the danger of her offspring, sprang on the common enemy, who, to defend itself, let fall the prize. The battle presently became severe to both parties. The hawk, by the power of his wings, the sharpness of his talons, and the strength of his beak, had for a while the advantage, cruelly lacerating the poor cat, and had actually deprived her of one eye in the conflict; but puss, no way daunted at the accident, strove, with all her cunning and agility, for her kittens, till she had broken the wing of her adversary. In this state, she got him more within the power of her claws, and availing herself of this advantage, by an instantaneous exertion, she laid the hawk motionless beneath her feet; and, as if exulting in the victory, tore the head off the vanquished tyrant. This accomplished, disregarding the loss of her eye, she ran to the bleeding kitten, licked the wounds made by the hawk's talons in its tender sides, and purred whilst she caressed her liberated offspring."

The Cat as a Foster Mother.

The female cat seems to be in a special sense a born mother. She is a.s.siduous in the care of her own young and singularly ready to extend the benefits of motherhood even to alien offspring. Instances are on record in which cats have reared squirrels, dogs, leverets, rats, ducks, chickens, and even small birds. These have usually occurred at times when the cats have been deprived of their own young. Mr. T. Foggitt says: "A cat belonging to the Albert Dock Warehouse, Liverpool, gave birth to six kittens. It was deemed necessary to destroy four of them, and they were accordingly drowned. The remaining two were placed, along with their mother, in some loose cotton, collected for the purpose in a box, in one of the warehouse rooms. On removing the box a few mornings after, to give puss her usual breakfast, great curiosity was excited on seeing a third added to the number; and the astonishment was still greater when the third was discovered to be a young rat which the cat had taken from its nest in the night-time, and brought home as a companion to the kittens she was then nursing. The young rat was very lively, and was treated by the cat with the same attention and care as if it were one of her own offspring."

The Cat as a Traveller.

The distances that cats will travel, finding their way with unerring instinct many miles across country of which there seems no reason to suppose them to have had previous knowledge is very remarkable. Mrs.

Bowdich records the case of a cat who disliking her new home, returned to her old one, in doing which, she had to cross two rivers, one of them about eighty feet broad and two feet and a half deep, running strong; the other wider and more rapid, but less deep. Cats are said to have found their way from Edinburgh to Glasgow, and one to the writer's knowledge returned from Dover to Canterbury after being carried from thence by rail. Captain Brown gives the following remarkable instance.

In June, 1825, a farmer, residing in the neighbourhood of Ross, sent a load of grain to Gloucester, a distance of about sixteen miles. The waggoners loaded in the evening, and started early in the morning. On unloading at Gloucester, a favourite cat, belonging to the farmer, was found among the sacks, with two kittens of very recent birth. The waggoner very humanely placed puss and her young in a hay-loft, where he expected they would remain in safety, until he should be ready to depart for home. On his return to the loft shortly afterwards, neither cat nor kittens were to be found, and he reluctantly left town without them.

Next morning the cat entered the kitchen of her master's house with one kitten in her mouth. It was dead; but she placed it before the fire, and without seeking food, or indulging, for a moment, in the genial warmth of her domestic hearth, disappeared again. In a short time she returned with the other kitten, laid it down by the first, stretched herself beside them, and instantly expired! The poor creature could have carried but one at a time, and, consequently, must have travelled three times over the whole line of her journey, and performed forty-eight miles in less than twelve hours.

The Cat as Sportsman.

The favourite food of the cat is fish, which curiously enough inhabits an element to which the cat has a great aversion. There are, however, numerous instances on record of cats which have overcome their natural antipathy to water in order to gratify their natural taste for fish. An extraordinary case of this kind is recorded in the _Plymouth Journal_, June, 1828:--"There is now at the battery on the Devil's Point, a cat, which is an expert catcher of the finny tribe, being in the constant habit of diving into the sea, and bringing up the fish alive in her mouth, and depositing them in the guard-room, for the use of the soldiers. She is now seven years old, and has long been a useful caterer. It is supposed that her pursuit of the water-rats first taught her to venture into the water, to which it is well known puss has a natural aversion. She is as fond of the water as a Newfoundland dog, and takes her regular peregrinations along the rocks at its edge, looking out for her prey, ready to dive for them at a moment's notice."

Mr. Beverley R. Morris says: "When living in Worcester many years ago, I remember frequently seeing the cat of a near neighbour of ours bring fish, mostly eels, into the house, which it used to catch in a pond not far off. This was an almost everyday occurrence."

The Cat's Intelligence.

Many remarkable ill.u.s.trations might be given of the sagacity and intelligence of the cat. A lady had for many years been the possessor of a cat and a canary bird, who became the closest friends, never bearing any lengthy separation from each other, and spending their whole time in each other's society. One summer day the lady was sitting working in her drawing-room, and the cat and bird were a short distance off.

Suddenly, without a moment's deliberation, the cat, to the great astonishment of the lady, uttered a loud growl, and then, seizing her little playmate in her mouth, darted off with it to a place of safety. A strange cat had entered the room and the friendly one had adopted this plan of saving the bird from the enemy. A still more remarkable ill.u.s.tration of the intelligence of a cat is given by De la Croix as follows: "I once saw," says he, "a lecturer upon experimental philosophy place a cat under the gla.s.s receiver of an air-pump, for the purpose of demonstrating that very certain fact, that life cannot be supported without air and respiration. The lecturer had already made several strokes with the piston, in order to exhaust the receiver of its air, when the animal, who began to feel herself very uncomfortable in the rarefied atmosphere, was fortunate enough to discover the source from which her uneasiness proceeded. She placed her paw upon the hole through which the air escaped, and thus prevented any more from pa.s.sing out of the receiver. All the exertions of the philosopher were now unavailing; in vain he drew the piston; the cat's paw effectually prevented its operation. Hoping to effect his purpose, he let air again into the receiver, which, as soon as the cat perceived, she withdrew her paw from the aperture; but whenever he attempted to exhaust the receiver, she applied her paw as before. All the spectators clapped their hands in admiration of the wonderful sagacity of the animal, and the lecturer found himself under the necessity of liberating her, and subst.i.tuting in her place another, that possessed less penetration, and enabled him to exhibit the cruel experiment."

The Lynx.

The several species of the Lynx belong to the genus Lyncus, the principle varieties of which are the Canada Lynx, and the European Lynx.

The Lynx has short legs, and is generally about the size of a fox, attaining often to three feet in length. It preys upon small quadrupeds and birds, in the pursuit of which it is an expert climber. The Canada Lynx preys largely upon the American hare, which it is well qualified to hunt. The Lynx is distinguished by a peculiar gait, for unlike other animals, it bounds with, and alights upon, all four feet at once. The ears are erect, and tipped with a long pencil of black hair. The fur which is long and thick is of a pale grey colour, with a reddish tinge, marked with dusky spots on the upper part of the body. The under parts are white. The European Lynx feeds upon small animals and birds. The fur of the lynx is valuable, on account of its great softness and warmth, and is in consequence an extensive article of commerce. It inhabits the northern parts of Europe, Asia, and America; and prefers cold or temperate climates, differing in this respect from most of the cat tribe.

The Chetah.

The Chetah or Hunting Leopard is the one species of the genus Cynlurus.

It is a handsome animal and capable of considerable training. According to Mr. Benet's description it is "intermediate in size between the leopard and the hound, more slender in its body, more elevated in its legs, and less flattened on the fore part of its head than the leopard, while deficient in the peculiarly graceful and lengthened form, both of head and body, which characterizes the hound." "The ground colour of the Chetah is a bright yellowish fawn above, and nearly pure white beneath; covered above, and on the sides, by innumerable closely approximating spots, from half an inch to an inch in diameter, which are intensely black, and do not, as in the leopard and other spotted cats, form roses with a lighter centre, but are full and complete." The Chetah is found in India and Africa but it is only in India that it is trained for hunting purposes. Sir William Jardine says: "the employment of the hunting leopard may be compared to the sport of falconry. The natural instinct teaches them to pursue the game, the reward of a portion of it, or of the blood, induces them to give it up, and again subject themselves to their master."

The Chetah as a Huntsman.

The practice of employing animals to hunt animals is of very early origin, and the docility of the Chetah early marked him out as a suitable ally in the chase. Chetahs are so gentle that they can be led about in a leash like greyhounds. The following description of a hunt is from "The Naturalist's Library". "Just before we reached our ground, the shuter suwars (camel courier), who always moved on our flanks in search of game, reported a herd of antelopes, about a mile out of the line of march, and the Chetahs being at hand, we went in pursuit of them. The leopards are each accommodated with a flat-topped cart, without sides, drawn by two bullocks, and each animal has two attendants. They are loosely bound by a collar and rope to the back of the vehicle, and are also held by the keeper by a strap round the loins. A leathern hood covers the eyes. On entering from a cotton field, we came in sight of four antelopes, and my driver managed to get within a hundred yards of them before they took alarm. The Chetah was quickly unhooded and loosed from his bonds; and, as soon as he viewed the deer, he dropped quietly off the cart on the opposite side to that on which they stood, and approached them at a slow crouching canter, masking himself by every bush, and inequality, which lay in his way. As soon, however, as the deer began to show alarm, he quickened his pace and was in the midst of them in a few bounds. He singled out a doe, and ran it close for about 200 yards, when he reached it with a blow of his paw, rolled it over, and in an instant was sucking the life blood from its throat." "As soon as the deer is pulled," says the same account, "a keeper runs up, hoods the Chetah, cuts the victim's throat, and securing some of the blood in a wooden ladle, thrusts it under the leopard's nose. The antelope is then dragged away and placed in a receptacle under the hatchery, while the Chetah is rewarded with a leg for his pains."

The Civits.

The family Viverridae includes a large number of species of small carnivorous animals of which the Civits and the Ichneumons are the best known. They belong chiefly to Africa and South Asia, but some are found in the south of Europe. The African Civit hails from Gaboon and Abyssinia and the Asiatic variety from Bengal, Nepaul, China and Formosa. It is from these animals that we get the fatty substance, used in perfumery and known as civit. Of this Mr. Piesse says: "In its pure state, civit has to nearly all persons a most disgusting odour, but when diluted to an infinitesimal portion its perfume is agreeable. The Genet, and the Paradoxure are other genera of this family."

The Ichneumon.

The Ichneumon numbers some fifteen genera, and sixty species. The best known of these is the grey Ichneumon which comes from India or adjacent countries. Naturally savage it soon becomes tame under kindly treatment.

It seems to have a natural enmity towards serpents, which it attacks and destroys. The Mahrattas say that it neutralizes the effects of snake bites by eating the root of the monguswail. Captain Brown records an experiment in which the ichneumon was placed in a room with a poisonous serpent which it tried to avoid. On the two being removed to the open air, the ichneumon is said to have immediately darted at the serpent and destroyed it, afterwards retiring to the wood and eating a portion of the plant said to be an antidote to the serpent's venom. The Ichneumon is about the size of the domestic cat and of a dark silver grey colour.

The Egyptian Ichneumon much resembles the cat in its habits and manners and is so deadly a foe to reptiles and vermin, that it is domesticated with a view to their destruction. It is remarkably quick in its movements, darting with unerring aim at the head of the reptile it attacks. It displays also the cat's patience in watching for its prey.

It has a great liking for crocodile's eggs and with remarkable instinct unearths them from the banks of rivers where they have been deposited.

Dormant Instinct.

Though perfectly tame in captivity, the natural instincts of the ichneumon are only dormant, as the following ill.u.s.tration will show. M.

d'Obsonville says, in his "Essay on the Nature of Various Animals", "I had an ichneumon very young, which I brought up. I fed it at first with milk, and afterwards with baked meat, mixed with rice. It soon became even tamer than a cat; for it came when called, and followed me, though at liberty, into the country. One day I brought to him a small water serpent alive, being desirous to know how far his instinct would carry him, against a being with which he was. .h.i.therto totally unacquainted.

His first emotion seemed to be astonishment, mixed with anger: for his hair became erect; but in an instant after, he slipped behind the reptile, and, with remarkable swiftness and agility, leaped upon its head, seized it, and crushed it between his teeth. This essay, and new aliment, seemed to have awakened in him his innate and destructive voracity, which, till then, had given way to the gentleness he had acquired from his education. I had about my house several curious kinds of fowls, among which he had been brought up, and which, till then, he had suffered to go and come unmolested and unregarded; but, a few days after, when he found himself alone, he strangled them every one, eat a little, and, as it appeared, drank the blood of two."

The Aard Wolf.

The Aard Wolf of South Africa, is the sole genus and species of the Protelidae family. It much resembles the hyaena in appearance and habit, and feeds on carrion and white ants.

The Hyaena.