11 APRIL 1925, Page 18

SPRING AND AUTUMN CATS

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]

SIR,—According to Vice-Admiral Philip Dumas' gardener, autumn kittens are slow, and spring ones quick, in catching mice. The latter remark does not agree with the following statement from an old number of Notes and Queries " In Wiltshire and Devonshire .cats born in May are not valued, because it is believed they will catch. no mice or rats, and will, on the contrary, ' bring in snakes and slow-