ts referred
to by your correspondent SHIRLEY HIBBERD. In the pure breed there is not
the slightest vestige of a tail, and in the case of any intermixture
with the species possessing the usual caudal appendage, the tail of
their offspring, like the witch's "sark," as recorded by honest Tam o'
Shanter,

"In longitude is sorely scanty."

In fact, it terminates abruptly at the length of a few inches, as if
amputated, having altogether a very ludicrous appearance.

G. TAYLOR.

Reading.

The breed of cats without tails is well known in the Isle of Man, and
accounted by the people of the island one of its chief curiosities.
These cats are sought after by strangers: the natives call them
"Rumpies," or "Rumpy Cats." Their hind legs are rather longer than those
of cats with tails, and give them a somewhat rabbit-like aspect, which
has given rise to the odd fancy that they are the descendants of a cross
between a rabbit and cat. They are good mousers. When a perfectly
tailless cat is crossed with an ordinary-tailed individual, the progeny
exhibit all intermediate states between tail and no tail.

EDWARD FORBES.

_Warville_ (Vol. viii., p. 516.).--

"Jacque Pierre Brissot was born on the 14th Jan., 1754, in the
village of Ouarville, near Chartres."--_Penny Cyclo._

If your correspondent is a French scholar, he will perceive that
Warville is, as nearly as possible, the proper pronunciation of the name
of this village, but that Brissot being merely the son of a prior
pastrycook, had no right whatever to the name, which doubtless he bore
merely as a distinction from some other Brissot. It may interest your
American friend to know, that he married Felicite Dupont, a young lady
of good family at Boulogne. A relation of my own, who was very intimate
with her before her marriage, has often described her to me as being of
a very modest, retiring, religious disposition, very clever with her
pencil, and as having received a first-rate education from masters in
Paris. These gifts, natural and acquired, made her a remarkable young
person, amidst the crowd of frivolous idlers who at that time formed
"good society," not only in Paris, but even in provincial towns, of
which Boulogne was not the least gay. Perhaps he knows already that she
quickly followed her husband to the scaffold. Her sister (I believe the
only one) married a Parisian gentleman named Aublay, and died at a great
age about ten years ago.

N. J. A.