THE GAT / 



was longer on the fore-legs and had a longer neck 

 than our cats have. You may look at all the statues, 

 big and little, in the British Museum, and there are 

 hundreds of them, some only 1^ inches high, and most 

 of them more than 2000 years old. In all you will 

 see the same long narrow body, long fore-legs, and 



Fig. 6.— Native Egyptian kitten. " Sphinx." (Photo, from 

 life by H. R. Hall.) 



long neck. Now, the Egyptians were excellent 

 artists, and these statues were doubtless very fine 

 pictures of their cats, while they exactly depict the 

 form of the cat living in Egypt in the present day. 

 It is sandy yellow in colour like the sand of the 

 desert, and its long narrow body suggests " speed,^^ 

 and that it hunts in the open, securing its prey by 



