Why should cats and ferrets at times lash their tails when approaching
prey? The tail-lashing suggests suppressed excitement, also a way of
gaining impetus or steadiness for a spring. But we think it should
be read chiefly as a sign of hostility and ferocity. A ferret enters
a burrow, discovers that there is a rat a little distance from him,
is angered, grows excited at the prospect of a fight, and lashes
his tail. But we have never observed a ferret to lash his tail when
approaching a rabbit--comparatively a harmless prey. A cat gives the
same storm-signal when annoyed, as when her fur is rubbed the wrong
way, or when she is about to spring on a mouse or a rat, each capable
of retaliation. But she seems to lash her tail chiefly when her prey
has come suddenly to her notice without warning; when she has been
lying for a long time in wait for a mouse, her tail hardly twitches,
in spite of her excitement; she is cool and collected, and her spring
brings certain death.
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