Page:Harper's New Monthly Magazine - v109.djvu/458

420 number and abnormal length of the local cats. The town is fairly crowded with cats, and the guide-books furnish no explanation of the fact. The Brescian cat is so long and narrow that he might almost be described as a dachscat. Why he has developed this extreme length can only be conjectured. It may possibly have something to do with the fierce competition for food which must prevail where cats are so abundant. Most people who are familiar with cats, and have not had their minds warped by the study of text-books of natural history, know that the cat is elastic to a high degree. When he desires to reach some article of food, or some new and possibly dangerous object, without approaching any nearer to it than is absolutely necessary, he stretches out his body until it is about a fifth longer than usual. Such is the excellence of the materials of which the cat is made that he can elongate himself and shrink back again to his normal length almost any number of times without permanently weakening his springs. But it is, however, quite possible that an excessive frequency of elongation may in time weaken the cat's springs, and prevent him from shrinking back to his original length. Now the Brescian cat is nearly always seen in the attitude of peering carefully around a corner, or of stealing up to some article that seems to him to have the promise and potency of food. In these circumstances he elongates himself to the utmost, and it is perhaps this that has made him permanently long.

My companion did not admire the cats, and the sentiment was reciprocated with much warmth. In every Italian church there are one or more cats, who have sought refuge from the cares of mice, and the temptations of the back fence, and have chosen a life of meditation and asceticism. There was a large cat sitting in an empty niche at the door of the cathedral. He seemed to be a distant relation of the dachshund, for in length and a marked tendency to bow-leggedness he resembled that preposterous animal. As we entered the church door he rose up and swore defiantly at my