THE RACOON 225 



natural death in any house, the inhabitants of it would 

 shave off their eyebrows, and that when a fire occurred 

 their first care was rather to save their cats than to 

 extinguish the conflagration. The domestic cat was a 

 very precious animal in Western Europe in the Middle 

 Ages, as is shown by the heavy fines imposed on those 

 who should destroy one in Wales, Switzerland, or Saxony. 

 As compensation, a payment was required of as much 

 wheat as was needed to form a pile sufficient to cover 

 over the body of the animal to the tip of its tail, the tail 

 being held up vertically, with the cat's muzzle resting 

 on the ground. 



The wild cat is still to be found in Southern Russia and 

 the adjacent parts of Asia, Turkey, Greece, Hungary, 

 Germany, Dalmatia, Spain, Switzerland, and, though 

 now very rare there, France. Thanks to the destruction 

 of forests in England, and the over-zeal of gamekeepers, 

 the wild cat is now extinct in England, and perhaps in 

 Wales also, although it was to be found in Wales thirty 

 years ago, and in England sixty years ago. In Scotland 

 it is still far from uncommon, especially in Inverness, 

 Ross-shire, and on the West Coast of the Highlands. It is 

 also found in Skye, but seems never to have existed in 

 Ireland. 



All the various kinds of cats, from the lion downward, 

 live naturally on warm-blooded animals which they have 

 themselves killed. The only exception is the Indian 

 fishing cat, which, besides fish, will eat fresh-water 

 mollusks. The different species are not only very 

 uniform in structure, but the uniformity of the colour 

 is also remarkable. Some reddish, or yellowish shades 

 more or less modified by grey or brown, may be said to 

 be their ground tint, and this is generally marked with 

 spots, or stripes of black, while the under parts of the 



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