THE CAT.—Felis Doméstica. ‘ 
act of destruction, either of men or beasts. As were almost all destructive beasts, it was 
protected by the great few who suffered no scath by its depredations, to the loss of the 
many small, whose little stock of poultry paid heavy toll to the licensed marauders. Even 
its fur was made a subject of legal enactment, being permitted to some orders of the 
people and forbidden to others. 
In Iveland—if the large savage feline that ranges the waste lands be indeed the true 
Felis Catus—it goes by the appropriate name of the Hunting Cat. 
WHEN ENGAGED in the study of an illustrated work on ethnology, with its portraits of 
the various forms which are assumed by the human race, a certain feeling of relief and 
repose takes possession of the mind when the reader turns from the savage races of 
mankind, with their selfish, restless, eager, bestialized expression, to the mild and intel- 
lectual countenances of the civilized nations. A similar sensation of repose is felt when 
we turn from the savage, hungry-looking Wild Cat to the placid face and tranquil expression 
of our favourite, the Domestic Car. 
Although this country possesses an indigenous Cat, which would naturally be 
considered as the original progenitor of the Domestic Cat, which attaches herself so 
strongly to mankind, it is now generally admitted that for this useful and graceful animal 
we are indebted to another continent. In the description of the Wild Cat, it has been 
mentioned that the distinguishing marks which characterize the two species are so per- 
manent as to defy eradication, and to mark decisively the “ Felis Catus” from the “ Felis 
Domestica.” The comparative length of their tails is of itself a distinction, and one which 
seems never to be lost by either the wild or the domestic animal. Whether those two 
creatures have ever produced a mixed breed is a matter of much uncertainty, for although 
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