The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-05-16


 wrote me a few weeks later: "One of | the Siamese at the Zoo is dead. I hope l yours are all right. The keeper says you will not keep them through the l winter" I journeyed to the Zoo, met | the keeper on the doorstep, said, T am sorry to hear"- He brushed his hand suspiclously across his eyes. He said: "The other died this morning" l turned sadly away. Christmas came and gastritis to the female. An eminent veterinary surgeon to whom l pin my faith prescribed Ice in a soap bowl, not drop of water, gave powders to be used every hour, shredded raw trump steak after twenty-four hours, and keep warm." I tried it successfully. The same treatment saved Wallypug after the last Palace Show. In March l took the cats into the garden and put them in the cats house. My own idea was to accustom them to cattery life. nicely wired run, wired over about six fleets from the ground, gave them opportunity for exercising their jump ing and climbing powers. Their board
 ed sleeping apartment the floor of which was covered with pine saWdust, was large enough (Sx6 feet) for exercise
 on wet day and could be easily swept and cleaned up, while their hooded era
 dle basket with cushioned flannel lin-
 ing was warm enough for anything and
 protected them from draught When
 summer came I new shut them up at
 night; they went in and out as fancy
 dictated
 It is now near the middle of March
 of the second winter, fortunately for
 my experiment, not severe one. My
 Siamese cats have never looked better. Their coats are absolutely level, every
 hair being of the same length; the eyes clear and bright, and their bodies well clothed with flesh. They have never slept a night indoors, except at the Pal- ace Show, since March, 1896, other than in their little boarded cats house, which is felt and zinc roofed, and paint ed outside, and they have never on the foggiest or coldest night had any lamp
 or artificial heat whatever. Before the winter came I saw that the house was free from draught, but ventilated, and their floor had strewn with fresh hay. One thing remark, their color is much darker and the coat quite different. l should say it is so much closer that double the number of hairs seems to have been thrown out, and, though neither stiff nor coarse. it is much stronger. Neither do they lose the coat as they did. I came to the conclusion that the Siamese kitten, up to twelve months, changed his coat every three months. I am prepared to say that my Siamese cats have not changed the coat they at present hold since June last G. e., eight months), but that I no- tice signs of it's coming out now. In June last they were both comparatively light in coat, particularly the female, who in the sun looked lovely. I con- cluded from this that one change of coat has sufficed the year, and that the cats born in February change their old summer sunburned, winter-worn coats from February to June.
 Possibly, too, the outdoor life has conduced to their retaining it, as be- | lieve those kept in the house have been observed to change the coat twice, and even three times, in the same period. | My friend, the keeper at the cats house | in the Geological Gardens, an intelli- l gent and observant man suggested that environment had something to do with | the darkened coat, and pointed out some small animals who's ince their l introduction to the brown cages in a l dark corner of the house have darken-
 ed in color. Ithanked him for his idea,
 which is not unknown to naturalists, as
 many readers of Darwin will remem- Der. Pine match boarding, haystrewn l floor, chocolate-coloredw woodwork, the
 bare ground, the brick walls, are some
 what in agreement with the tone of l change, one must admit, and added to l this the remark of gentleman at Brighton Show, that there was possibly
 something in the idea of applying heat with out sunlight, to preserve or pro- duce light coats, as in Himalaya rab-
 bits, lends color to my opinion. A blue cat gets sunburned coat, so does a | Siamese. Heat without sun--i. e., a dif- fused heat with shade-produced the
 light coat as witness the Siamese being light colored in June and also tends to
 the frequent shedding of it, as witness
 those cats kept indoors. Also the new ly imported cats are light, but darken
 in the acclimatizing, and few light cats shown in their first year have stood the l test of the second, being almost inva-
 riably beaten by a kitten, or some younger cat, frequently their own
 brother of the next litter. Cats in the habit of continually wearing coat and allowed to stay by the dining-room fire, have however, been successfully
 shown of light hue. l am, in conse- quence, also obliged to echo the opinion
 of friend, that the dark coat is the dead coat, the light one the new The