442 FELID^E. 



cutting knife-like blade with a varying number of cusps, and the 

 canines are long, frequently curved, with a cutting edge, and pointed. 

 The stomach is simple; the caecum, when present, is small, and the 

 vermiform appendix does not exist. 



The first family, that of the Cats, is more highly specialized than 

 any other of the Carnivora, and among its members are the most 

 powerful of existing beasts of prey. Their attributes are various and 

 peculiar, and some are possessed by no other creature. The quick 

 vision, the acute hearing, the silent, stealthy, sinuous movement, 

 the sudden spring and fearsome roar, the crushing blow of the armed 

 paw, and attack of the scissor-acting blade-like teeth constitute 

 altogether the most paralyzing living engine of destruction known at 

 the present time among existing animals. Their prey consists of 

 warm-blooded creatures which have been killed by themselves, only 

 one species being an exception to this, an Indian Cat that lives on 

 fish which it captures in shallow waters. Their bones are solid and 

 like ivory, and the clavicles are set in the muscles, but are not articu- 

 lated with either scapula or sternum, and thus are preserved from 

 shock or injury when the heavy body alights on the fore paws after 

 some tremendous spring. The face is short, and the lower jaw is 

 incapable of lateral motion. The tongue is thickly covered with 

 papillae, which gives a rough surface, and in the larger species acts as 

 a file in stripping flesh from bones. The teeth are characteristic, and 

 the lower molar series ply within those of the upper, and cut the food 

 as would a pair of scissors. The sectorials and canines are very large, 

 and there is a wide diastema between the latter and the first pre- 

 molar on each side of both jaws. The claws are long, sharp, and 

 curved, terrible weapons of offense, tearing the flesh in a fearful 

 manner, and are retractile, resting, when not in use, in a sheath 

 that protects them from injury. The skin of cats hangs very 

 loosely, and parts of it are capable of being drawn half round the 

 body, a wise provision, as it thus yields to the stroke of the sharp 

 claws, and they can get no hold, and lacerations, consequently, 

 rarely occur. The pelage is of many colors, often brilliant in hues, 

 and decorated with various patterns, and frequently of a soft, even, 

 velvety texture, and this beautiful covering, with the graceful, silent 

 movements, as if performed by some imaginary spirit of a dream, 

 make these animals appear to the eye among the most attractive of 

 all quadrupeds. 



Fam. I. Felidse. Cats. 



D. G. Elliot, Monograph of the Felidce, Folio, London, 1878-83 

 St. G. Mivart, The Cat, London, 1881. 



