in volume 4 of his "histoire naturelle" (c. 1767), georges louis leclerc, comte de buffon, mentioned the pendulous-eared cats of pe-chi-ly in china and he was unsure whether the black or yellow "sumxu" was a cat or some other domesticated animal used to control rats. his description was included in "the natural history of the cat" (volume 4 of "histoire naturelle", as translated into english by william smellie in 1781):