218 REV. G. S. DOBBIE ON INFLUENCE OF CIVILIZATION 
by no means universally appreciated. The typical forms are 
characterized by a general rodent-like aspect, in consequence 
of which they frequently pay the penalty of death, though 
the urinary odour which proceeds from secretions in their 
hinder parts makes their flesh unpalatable to cats and certain 
other carnivora which have mistaken them for totally dif- 
ferent prey. This disgust, however, is not shared by weasels, 
buzzards, and owls. Two forms of this order, which in 
structure as well as in habits differ widely from each other, 
the Hedgehog and the Mole, are mercilessly persecuted by 
man, and the former is now becoming rare in many districts 
of England where a few years ago it abounded. The absence 
of the latter in Ireland is remarkable, as the little creature 
ranges from the Tagus to the Lena. The habitat of the genus 
Myogale, which consists of the slopes of the Pyrenees and the 
region lying to the north-west of the Black Sea, is still more 
extraordinary. 
Of the seven families which constitute the great Order 
Carnivora, six are represented in the Palearctic Region and 
five in Europe. From their predaceous habits and ferocious 
dispositions the Carnivora are, of all mammals, the most 
liable to incur the enmity of man. They are essentially 
robbers and murderers, and the physical powers of the larger 
forms render them so dangerous to man’s life and property 
that their existence is incompatible with civilization. Of the 
Felide or Cat family—the Carnivora pur excelience—which 
include at once the most formidable and the most beautiful 
of the class Mammalia, no species of the first rank is now to 
be found in Europe, although, strange to say, all the four 
giant cats of the Old World—the Lion, Tiger, Leopard or 
Panther, and Ounce or Irbis,* together with the Cheetah, 
the Chaus, the Desert Cat, and the Caracal—inhabit the 
adjacent parts of Asia. The largest of the European Felidae 
is the Lynx, of which there are three distinct forms, if not 
three separate species. The largest of these, the Silver Lynx 
(Felis borealis), has a circumpolar distribution ; but as its fur 
is held in high esteem, and as it does not inhabit the extreme 
* Snow Leopard’ of sportsmen, not the Latin ‘ Uncia,’ or the ‘ Ounce’ of 
Milton and other early English poets. 
+ ‘Gepard,’ or so-called Hunting Leopard (Cynailurus jubatus). 
