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If we push our inquiries further, we find the case of tha 

 kitten is by no means an unique one. Bats, both old and young, 

 hiss and explode when you explore their holes, so do many birds, 

 Such as wood-peckers, titmice, horn-bills and owls, young opossums 

 and phalangers and dasyures manifest the same habit, and a 

 striking exarapleis found in South America among thenyctipitheci, 

 or night apes, an eccentric family of monkeys about which I shall 

 have something further to say if time permits. Now all these 

 hissing creatures, although as you will see at once they belonged 

 to all sections of the animal kingdom, have a common habit of 

 making their nurseries in hollow trees or shallow holes. My 

 suggestion is, here we have clearly the mimicry of the hiss of the 



Dr. Eobinson went on to say that for an instance of 

 protective mimicry they had to look no farther than the tabby 

 cat on the hearthrug,— lie meant the pure tabby,— with large black 

 curved markings. When the cat was curled up asleep those 

 markings formed a spiral, strongly suggestive of a coiled serpent, 

 with a full blotch where the head would be. In the same way 

 margays and ocelots resembled rattle snakes and pythons. He 

 wished them to consider this theory entirely as an open question ; 

 it would Hmuse them even if they did not believe it. His idea 

 was that these animals resembled snakes for their own protection. 

 These markings might be mere vestiges of what existed in 

 former days, when the mammals were feeble creatures, as com- 

 pared with the great birds and reptiles from which they needed 

 special protection. If the varying species retained the same 

 common trait, it might be said that the trait was peculiar lo the 

 original type. The cat's near relatives, like the civet and 

 the genet, also had these longitudinal markings along th? back; 

 and there again they got the resemblance to the coiled serpent. 

 The lecturer also drew attention to the viperine appearance 

 of cats when enraged, 'i'here was the suggestion of the fangs, 

 and the movement of the tail was snake-like, for snakes when 

 angry jerked their tails to and fro, very much as cats did. The 

 striped tail of the cat, too, had a curious snakelike aspect. 

 He did not say that tie resemblance in the case of an enraged 

 cat was very strong, but it would be suflBcient to give an enemy 

 a shock and enable the cat to get an advantage. The cat, more- 

 over, uttered sounds very much like those emitted by venomous 

 snakes when about to strike. Their sibilant utterances might 

 generally be regarded as an ultimatum. Cats were the prey of 

 the eagles, but many eagles feared and avoided snakes. He 

 admitted that many difficulties stood in the way of the theory he 



