23 DECEMBER 1916, Page 16

"RATS AND MICE AND SUCH Sal aT,T, DEER."

[To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—May I with sixty years' experience of cats venture to disagree with your verdict that only a half-starved cat will be a good hunter? A half-starved cat would not have spirit to stand up to a rat—it is those who are well fed who hunt for sport and make [Another correspondent quotes Stephen's Book of the Farm to the same effect, and adds that in his part of the country cats, if not well fed, go in search of rabbits and get caught in traps or are shot by farmers on whose lands they trespass.—ED. Spectator.]