Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/253

 ii s. XIL SEPT. 25, i9i5.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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than cupboard love } for I have known one a notorious rambler to " hang around " for many days in the hope of getting a spoon- ful of olive oil, of which it was inordinately fond.

3. Eatin? flies has no effect on cats. The cats appear thinner in the fly season because in summer they cast a great portion of their coats ; and, conversely, the drinking of milk tands to fatten them, as well as the abundance of mice and birds in hot weather, so that the thinner coat and fatter body, in each of these cases, appear self-evident.

4. Tortoiseshell cats of either sex are exceedingly scarce. Males of this colour are almost unknown, and females are very scarce. Sandy-coloured cats are nearly all males, and it would appear as if the " sandy " Tom is the male of the species of which the female is the tortoiseshell. The sexes of all cat-like animals follow a similar rule.

5. White cats are usually deaf, but the natural compensation applies, and they do not appear less intelligent, because the S3nses of sight and smell are correspondingly increased. I am at present in touch with a white female cat with lovely orange eyes, but as deaf as a post. She is nursing two of her kitten? snow-white, with the purest turquoise-blue eyes imaginable.

Nos. 4 and 5 appear to be rules of nature which are beyond our explanation, with an occasional exception to prove them. The same difficulty arises in the human species : Paganini, Paderewski, Mozart, Lind, Melba, Shakespeare, have not many counterparts in each generation. A real tortoiseshell " Tom " is worth a large sum.

CHAS. A. ABKLE.

1. Cats will form strong attachments to persons who take pains to gain their affec- tions. I never had any difficulty in inducing my cats to settle when I changed my lodgings. It is only natural, however, if a cat prefers its old hunting-grounds to the society of a person who does not care for it.

2. I have always buttered a kitten's paws when it was first brought home. Whilst it is licking them, it considers whether it had not better try how it likes its new home, especially if a saucer of milk is put beside it, and a little petting added.

3. I doubt whether eating flies has much to do with the thinness of cats in summer. When I lived in Jamaica, I noticed that the fine Tom, which I had for ten years, used to wander into the bush in fine weather, and return to the house, thin, before heavy rains

began, when rats also sought shelter there ^ I thought his thinness was the result of increased bodily exercise in hunting.

4. I have never seen a tortoiseshell Tom cat, but I have read that, though rare, they sometimes occur.

5. Certainly all white cats are not deaf. I have been told that all white cats with pink eyes are so. I cannot, of course, say if this is true. I have only experimented on one, and it was totally deaf.

F. NEWMAN.

As a lover and keeper of cats for more- than sixty years I can say that cats are more- attached " to their owner than their home ~. but it depends upon the way in which they are treated. A deserted cat lingers about its home in the hope of meeting with its- friends. A forsaken cat is a pitiable creature r and will accept kindness from strangers, but will readily return to its first love when it can. A cat which I lost through her being chivied away by boys came home- after five weeks, when she sang for joy and shed tears with sobs of satisfaction as she clung to me. Persons who smear a cat'& paws with butter do so to keep the cat in a new home, because when a cat washes herself it is a sign of content.

" They say " that if cats eat flies it makes them thin, but I never knew a cat catch and eat flies except in fun.

Tom cats are not so home-like as she cats, Tortoiseshell, white, and May -kittened cats are " no good " ; but tortoiseshells are not all females, and I knew only one quite white cat with albino eyes, and it was " stupid-deaf." The why and wherefore required by MB. ACKEBMANN I must " leave it a-be." THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

THE VIRTUES OF ONIONS (11 S. xii. 101, 149, 167, 209). In the Talmud an infusion of onions in wine is mentioned as a means of healing an issue of blood. It was necessary at the same time for some one to say to the patient," Be healed of thine issue of blood.' r This remedy, and the formula, are strongly reminiscent of Egypt. The Egyptians were devoted to onions, which they ate more than 2,000 years before the time of Christ. They were given to swear by the onions and garlic in their gardens. Herodotus tells us that during the building of the Pyramids nine tons of gold were spent in buying onions for the workmen. But it is to be noted that in Egypt the onion is sweet and soft ; whereas in other countries it grows hard, and