The Living Animals of the World, Volume I: Mammals
A beautiful variety of the typical British cat. mood. Certainly all white cats are somewhat
The Cat Tribe
deaf, or lack acute quality of senses; but this failing rather softens the feline nature than becomes dominant as a weakness.
The nearest to perfection perhaps, and yet at the same time extremely soft and finely made, is the BLUE CAT, rare in England as an English cat, but common in most other countries, and called in America the Maltese Cat for Cushion's sake probably, since it is too widely distributed there to be localised as of Pkoto by E. Landor] [Enlmj. foreign origin. It is out SHORT-HAIRED TABBY. living. It has won no less than 00 prizes. Ladyin the mining districts and This is perhaps the most famous cat Deciesnow is its owner. agricultural quarters, right away from the beaten tracks of humanity, where the most wonderful breeds of cats develop in America; and caravan showmen have told me that at one time it was quite a business for them to carry cats into these wildernesses, and sell them to rough, hardy miners, who dealt out death to each other without hesitation in a quarrel, but who softened to the appeal of an animal which reminded them of homelier times.
One man told me that upon one occasion he sold eight cats at an isolated mining township in Colorado, and some six days' journey farther on he was caught up by a man on horseback from the township, who had ridden hard to overtake the menagerie caravan, with the news that one of the cats had climbed a monster pine-tree, and that all the other cats had followed in his wake; food and drink had been placed in plenty at the foot of the tree, but that the cats had been starving, frightened out of their senses, for three days, and despite all attempts to reach them they had only climbed higher and higher out of reach into the uppermost and most dangerous branches of the pine. The showman hastened with his guide across country to the township, only to find that in the interval one bright specimen of a man belonging to the village had suggested felling the tree, and so rescuing the cats from the pangs of absolute starvation, should they survive to the ordeal. A dynamite cartridge had been used blast the roots of the pine, and a rope attached to its trunk had done the rest and brought the monster tree to earth, only, however, at the expense of all the cats, for not one survived the tremendous fall and shaking. A sad and tearful procession followed the remains of the cats to their hastily dug grave, and thereafter a bull mastiff took the place of the cats in the township, an animal more in character with the lives of its inhabitants. Analogous to this case of the travelling menageries, we have the great variety of blues, silvers, and whites
J'hoto by E. Landor] [Ealing. which are characteristic of Russia. There is a vast
LONG-HAIRED ORANGE. tableland of many thousands of miles in extent, this variety good specimen of is always large and intersected by caravan routes to all the old countries furred. finely
of the World The Living Animals
[THi/iaic, X.J3.
MANX. SIAMESE.
These tailless cats are well known; they were formerly called " Corn- These strikingly coloured cats are now fairly numerous in England, wall cats." Note the length of the hind legs, which is one of the but command high prices. They have white kittens, which subse. characteristics of this variety of the domestic cat. quently become coloured.
of the ancients, and it is not astonishing to hear of attempts being made to steal the wonderful cats of Persia, China, and Northern India, as well as those of the many dependent it is a remarkable fact thatand independent tribes which bound the Russian kingdom. But none but the blues can live in the attentuated atmosphere of the higher mountainous districts through which they are taken before arriving in Russian territory. It is no uncommon thing to find a wonderful complexity of blue cats shading to silver and white in most Russian villages, or blue cats of remarkable beauty, but with a dash of tabby-marking running through their coats. Their life, too, is lived at the two extremes. In the short Russian summer they roam the woodlands, pestered by a hundred poisonous insects; in the winter they are imprisoned within the four walls of a snow-covered cottage, and are bound down prisoners to domesticity till the thaw sets in again. Many of the beautiful furs which come to us from Russia are really the skins of these cats, the preparation of which for market has grown into a large and thriving industry. The country about Kronstadt, in the Southern Carpathian Mountains of Austria, is famous for its finely developed animals; and here, too, has grown up a colony of sable-coloured cats, said to be of Turkish origin, where the pariahs take the place of cats.
The TABBY is remarkable to us in that it is characteristic of our own country, and no other colour seems to have been popular until our own times. If you ask any one which breed of cat is the real domestic cat, you will be told the tabby, probably because is really remarkable, and it is so well known to all. The complexity of the tabby
BLUE LONG-HAIRED, OR PERSIAN. SILVER PERSIANS.
This cat belonged to Queen Victoria. Three of Mrs. Champion's celebrated cats.
The Cat Tribe 73 for shape and variety of colouring it has no equal in any other tribe of cat. It has comprised in its nature all the really great qualities of the feline, and all its worst attributes. You can truthfully say of one.of its specimens that it attaches itself to the individual, while of another in the same litter you will get an element of wildness. A third of the same parents will sober down to the house, but take only a passing notice of people. You can teach it anything if it is tractable, make it follow like a dog, come to whistle, but it will have its independence. Photo by B, Landor (Eating, The Sanp-coLoureD Cat, with a whole- LONG-TAIRED CHINCHILLA. coloured coat like the rabbit, which we know Note the beautiful ‘ fluffiness ” of this cat's fur. _as the ApyssinraN or. Bunny Cat, is a strong African type. On the Gold Coast it comes down from the inland country with its ears all bitten and torn away in its fights with rivals. It has been acclimatised in England, and Devonshire and Cornwall have both established a new and distinct tribe out of its parentage. The Manx Car is nearly allied to it, and a hundred years ago the tailless cat was called the Cornwall Cat, not the Manx. Siam sends us a regal animal in the Siamese RoyaL Cat; it has a brown face, legs, and tail, a cream-coloured body, and mauve or blue eyes. The Siamese take great care of their cats, for it is believed that the souls of the departed are transmitted into the bodies of animals, and the cat is a favourite of their creed; consequently the cats are highly cultivated and intelligent, and can think out ways and means to attain an end. Ihave tried for years to trace the origin of the LoNG-HAIRED or Persian Carts, but I cannot find that they were known to antiquity, and even the records of later times only mention the SHort-HalReED. European literature does not give us an insight into the subject; and unless Chinese history holds some hidden lights in its records, we are thrown back upon the myths of Persia to account for the wonderful modern distribution of the long-haired cat, which is gradually breeding out into as many varieties as the short-haired, with this difference—that greater care and trouble are taken over the long-haired, and they will, as a breed, probably soon surpass the short-haired for ‘ntelligence and culture. One variety is quite new and distinctive — the Smoke. Lone- HAIRED, whose dark brown or black surface-coat, blown aside, shows an under-coat of blue and silver, with a light brown frill round its neck. All the other long-haired cats can pair with the short-haired for colouring and marking, but I have gyi, s5 one of the rarest cats in England. It belongs to Miss K, Maud Bennett who bas not yet seen a Bunny LONG-1AIRED. kindly bad it photographed for this work. Photo by H. Trevor Jessop.
THE “BUN” OR “TICKED” SHORT-HAIRED CAT,
10
CHAPTER III.
THE FOSSA, CIVETS, AND ICHNEUMONS.
THE FOSSA.
"N the FOSSA Madagascar possesses an altogether I peculiar animal. It is a very slender, active creature, with all its proportions much elongated. It is of a bright bay uniform colour, with thick fur, and has sharp retractile claws. It has been described as the natural connecting-link between the Civets and the Cats, anatomically speaking. Thus it has retractile claws, but does not walk on its toes, like cats, but on the
Photo by A. S. liudland tfc Sons. soles of its feet (the hind pair FOSSA. of which is quite naked), like The only feline animal of Madagascar. a civet. Very few have been brought to England; indeed, the first time that one was exhibited in our Zoological Gardens was only ten years ago. Formerly stories were told of its ferocity, which was compared to that of the tiger. These tales were naturally the subject of ridicule. The fossa usually attains a length of about 5 feet from snout to tail, and is the largest of the carnivora of Madagascar. A fine young specimen lately brought to London, and in the Zoological Gardens at the time of writing, is now probably full grown. It is about the same length and height as a large ocelot, but with a far longer tail, and is more slenderly built. The extreme activity of the fossa no doubt renders it a very formidable foe to other and weaker creatures. It has been described by a recent writer as being entirely nocturnal, and preying mainly on the lemurs and birds which haunt the forests of Madagascar. The animal kept at the Zoological. Gardens has become fairly tame. It is fed mainly on chickens' heads and other refuse from poulterers' shops. Apparently it has no voice Fincldey.of any kind. It neither growls, roars, nor Photo by L. Medland, F.Z.S.} [North