14 Lloyd's natural history. 



animal of the tribe is licking a bone, which is too powerful for 

 his strong jaws to break. It is suited more for laceration, and 

 to retain the food within the mouth, than for an organ of 

 taste; and the gustatory nerves are comparatively small, and 

 distributed principally to the muscles. In the different species, 

 these papillae have by no means the same arrangement, for 

 some are in straight rows, while others run in straight lines. 

 Most persons are familiar with the peculiar sensation produced 

 on the skin of the hand when licked by a Domestic Cat, but 

 by the Lion or Tiger much more marked traces of the opera- 

 tion would be left. 



Allusion has already been made to the alteration in the size 

 of the pupil of the eye of the Cats by the contraction of the 

 iris under the influence of light ; and it may be added that the 

 contraction likewise produces an alteration in the form of the ex- 

 posed pupil, which varies from a circle to a narrow, more or less 

 oat-shaped vertical slit. The subject of the contraction of the 

 iris and the consequent form of the pupil has recently been in- 

 vestigated by Dr. G. L. Johnson, the results of whose observa- 

 tions have been published in the "Proceedings of the Zoologi- 

 cal Society" for 1894. After examining no less than i8d 

 Domestic Cats, all of whose eyes were subjected to the same 

 degree of illumination, it was found that the shape of the pupil 

 varied from a perfect circle to a pointed oval. No general rule 

 could, however, be established with regard to this variation, 

 except, perhaps, that in the so-called blue tabbies no oval pupils 

 were detected. And it appears that neither the colour of the 

 iris nor the sex of the animal have any bearing on the shape 

 of the pupil. 



"The only condition," writes Dr. Johnson, "which appears 

 to have an influence on the shape of the pupil seems to be 

 age. My observations on the above-mentioned Cats, and on 

 a number of others, all lead me to the conclusion that the 



