Page:The Book of Cats.djvu/83

Rh There is a breed of tail-less white Cats in the Isle of Man, and also in Devonshire. These are not the sort of animals with which, on shipboard, the "stow-aways" are made acquainted.

A great many Cats in the Isle of Man are said to be deaf. Thus, "As deaf as a Manx Cat." There is an idea that white Cats with blue eyes are always deaf, but a correspondent of Notes and Queries says, "I am myself possessed of a white Cat which, at the advanced age of upwards of seventeen years, still retains its hearing to great perfection, and is remarkably intelligent and devoted, more so than Cats are usually given credit for. Its affection for persons is, indeed, more like that of a dog than of a Cat. It is a half-bred Persian Cat, and its eyes are perfectly blue, with round pupils, not elongated, as those of Cats usually are. It occasionally suffers from irritation in the ears, but this has not at all resulted in deafness."

Do you know why Cats always wash themselves after a meal? A Cat caught a sparrow, and was about to devour it, but the sparrow said,

"No gentleman eats till he has first washed his face."

The Cat, struck with this remark, set the sparrow down, and began to wash his face with his paw, but