SOCIETY PETS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIV, Issue 1, 3 January 1910, Page 7

SOCIETY PETS.

The society women of England are' tired of dogs and cats as pets. They ! want something novel, something "chic," something that will show a : desirable fertility of imagination I (writes the London correspondent of ; the San Francisco Argonaut). A daring iconoclast once suggested that babies mak > good pets, but he was frowned upon as he deserved to be. Babies indeed! The Duchess of Roxburgh© was the first to begin the craze. She has all sorts of birds and animals whose developed intelligence is now nearly equal to that of their owner. But Lady Evelyn Guinness has gone one better. She has a tame ferret, at least it is tame in her s hands, but positively a terror to everyone olse. The little beast, sits on her shoulder and glares disconcertingly at visitors, under the pardonable suspicion that they may be disguised geese or rabbits. Lady Evelyn's ferret recently mad© a raid upon the poultry yard of a country house where its mistress was staying, and /!■:-»;<' r.K-^-j r j) On t. a dozen prize duckli ;:•;>■ Li us many seconds. Lady Evelyn was much annoyed at the remonstrances of the ducklings' owner.

'She said that it was. the instinct of the little animal to kill ducks and that it should not be blamed. Of course not. It is also Lady Evelyn's \ instinct to keep nasty vormin as pets, ■ and she should not be blamed. Tor- ; toises, too, are popular. It is not , universally known, but the dpmesti- ' cated tortoise brings good luck, and a ; tortoise has enough intelligence to j make him. an acceptable companion ; upon | equal intellectual terms to the fair and titled ladies who rhapsodize over him. Other pets much in favor with Lady Bute are butterflies and ladybirds, and even these it seems can be trained. The Duchess of Teck ! has a pet goat, and she says it has a j surprising amount of intelligence. ! But no one has impeached the intel- ■ ligence of the goat. It is his morals that are so gravely under suspicion, but then—chacun a son gout.