of Animals to secure Warmth. 497 



trouble, though they seldom draw attention, or excite inquiry, 

 and yet they may frequently give origin to the most interesting 

 researches in natural history. 



Without going further than the hearth-rug beside my chair, 

 I may begin with the cat, which prefers that hearth-rug to any 

 other corner of my study ; and though she cannot be said to 

 exhibit much contrivance in keeping herself warm, compared, 

 at least, with her insidious cunning in taking her prey, she 

 certainly shows most surprising knowledge and tact in disco- 

 vering the best non-conductors of heat. Darwin would have 

 considered this as unequivocal proof of knowledge derived from 

 experience * ; but as I cannot bring myself to give cats the 

 credit of discovering, and then acting ! upon the philosophic 

 principles of the distribution of caloric, I shall venture upon 

 the inference from the fact, that they are not indigenous (con- 

 trary to the received opinions) to so cold a climate as Britain, 

 and are impelled to search after warm places, in consequence 

 of their great impatience of cold. 



The feet of the cat, though they are thickly clothed with 

 hair above, and padded with a soft cushion of thickened epi- 

 dermis, intermediate between cartilage and tendon, on the 

 soles, may be always observed to be cold to the touch when 

 the animal has been exposed to a low temperature, as are the 

 ears likewise ; and, in such circumstances, it manifests its 

 uncomfortable feelings by restlessly wandering about till it can 

 find a warm corner. This very appetite (if it may be so called) 

 for warmth, appears to me to be the chief cause which pre- 

 vents our domestic cats from ever becoming wild; for, in 

 every part of the country where there are woods, they might 

 find abundant prey ; and it is well known, that when cats once 

 take to bird-catching in the woods, they never afterwards eat 

 anything dead but with reluctance. I have had many oppor- 

 tunities of observing cats in this half wild state; but though 

 they depended for food wholly upon what birds and mice they 

 could catch, and were so wild as scarcely to permit themselves 

 to be seen, much less approached, yet no instance ever came 



* Zoonomia, i. 8, 16, and Brown's Observ. p. 263. 



