Keith Schacht, age 9, of Bellingham, Washington, for his question:

Why do cats have whiskers?

The average cat has a handsome moustache and a pair of whiskery eye¬brows. The long whiskers in his moustache grow in four rows on each side of his mouth and his remarkable eyebrow whiskers may be almost as tall as his perky ears. People used to tell us that a cat uses these long stiff hairs to measure small openings to make sure he can squeeze through without betting stuck.

This was a nice idea. But cat experts insist that it just is not so. They explain that a cat's handsome whiskers are attached to sensitive nerves. When they touch a solid object, the nerves flash a message to his brain. A cat, us we know, sees better than we do in a dim light    and he likes to go hunting at night. As his sensitive whiskers brush against shadowy ob¬jests, they help him to feel his way through the dusky bushes. The little night hunter needs those long whiskers because he cannot see in total dark¬ness.