Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Polydactyl cat" in English language version.
In fact, polydactyl cats are often referred to as 'Hemingway Cats'.
Several sources I checked recounted the story you told, that ships' captains carried them onboard because they were considered lucky (and better mousers, one source said). An article from Cornell University's Cat Watch (1998) looked at studies done on polydactyl cats from the 1940s to the 1970s, and tentatively concluded that the trait probably initially occurred in cats who came over from England to the Boston area with the Puritans in the mid 1600s. There was also speculation in the article that the mutation might have developed in cats already in the Boston area [...] In Europe, polydactyl cats are rare because they were practically wiped out during medieval times due to superstitions about witchcraft (Kelly, Larson, 1993).
Several sources I checked recounted the story you told, that ships' captains carried them onboard because they were considered lucky (and better mousers, one source said). An article from Cornell University's Cat Watch (1998) looked at studies done on polydactyl cats from the 1940s to the 1970s, and tentatively concluded that the trait probably initially occurred in cats who came over from England to the Boston area with the Puritans in the mid 1600s. There was also speculation in the article that the mutation might have developed in cats already in the Boston area [...] In Europe, polydactyl cats are rare because they were practically wiped out during medieval times due to superstitions about witchcraft (Kelly, Larson, 1993).
In fact, polydactyl cats are often referred to as 'Hemingway Cats'.
Several sources I checked recounted the story you told, that ships' captains carried them onboard because they were considered lucky (and better mousers, one source said). An article from Cornell University's Cat Watch (1998) looked at studies done on polydactyl cats from the 1940s to the 1970s, and tentatively concluded that the trait probably initially occurred in cats who came over from England to the Boston area with the Puritans in the mid 1600s. There was also speculation in the article that the mutation might have developed in cats already in the Boston area [...] In Europe, polydactyl cats are rare because they were practically wiped out during medieval times due to superstitions about witchcraft (Kelly, Larson, 1993).
