The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1919-03-16


mice generally do before soampsring OF
into the open, the cat springs and capture
Il from behind the board with one paS
which 1t can very expeTtly bend In shar
angle to at around the board.
"1f the cat has no whiskers OF syelashe
which It can continually move about IN 4
Geld Of vision as It tixates, It should. the
retically, be often unable TO see the noel
because the nose, which IL really Q
small point, must disappear at mo-
ments. The cat must, accordingly,
wait until the
mouse shows
larger part Of its
body or comes en-
tirely from behind
the board and
skips about
"But mice very
often show only
the nose and turn
back. The whis-
kerless cat would
lose these oppor
tunities, which are
really good ones
for q Whiskered
cat, and must nee
essarily live upon
mice that venture
into the open.
Moreover, Il cat
fixated IN sbIeet
which disappeared
and reappsared L
would grow rest
less and brighten
the mice.
For many days l %
served q cat while 1t was
watching for mice. II evt
IDENTIFY lived on mice and
rats, Tor nobody fed Il.
During one afternoon
saw It catch two mice, and
at dusk / found It with 3
rat. IdepriTed the cat Of
its Whiskers, and again OBJ
served It as It watched for
mice. saw It spring sew.
eral times into the shucks
and hay, but 1t captured
no mouse while was pres.
ent. II may, Of course, be =.
that l could not so well
detect the presence Of .
mouse as even the wits.
kerless cat could, but 1t often seemed
me that the eat spRang when no mouse We
about. ! supposed that some Of the object
which were in the cats field Of vision as
fxated. disappeared, and that when IN
animal moved its head or partly closed on
or the other or both eyes, as 1t oceaslonall
did. an object that had vanished student
reappeared and was mistaken for q mouse
perhaps not for the entire body, put 70
such a small part as the nose.
The cat grew weak; each. time 1t say
me it ran to me, rubbed for while agains
my legs, and quite often looked me in tn
face and meowed. AS a whiskered cat
never did this. Instead Of feeding 1t
glued some rabbit whiskers at variou
places on its face, as much as posstbl
onto the old whisker stubs, These woul
move about somewhat as the original whiI
kers did. For the sake Of economy trie
to give the cat movable whiskers; for
single whisker that moves in the field O
vision is certainly worth a number @
stationary ones.
CAS- long as the false whiskers were IL
tact, the cat behaved just as it original
did; l never observed it spring withou
catching a mouse. But every time tn
animal washed its face the rabbit whisker
would be. either badly displaced or scrape
entirely away. Since this method cause
so much trouble, shot some horned owl
and glued many long shaky pieces @
feather down before and behind the cat
eyes. Especially when the ends Of thes
were charged with electricity, which ger
Grated on the cats back and transferre
to the ends of the feathers, they stood GU
on the face and waved back and forth in
way resembling the movements of tn
round arms of a sea anemOne. When tn
cat now washed its face the down was usU
ally left intact, and all had to d.. vas I
occasionally straighten and recharge tn
pieces
81 convinced myself that when the ca
had false whiskers, 1t was a much NOR
efficient mouser than when it had none.
saw 1t catch more mice and 1t seemed {
get somewhat fatter; but 1t still RENAME
hungry only for the simple reason that
place the down it lost, to straighten tn
pieces that became tangled with the hail
and to keep the ends charged"