64 BULLETIN NO. VII. 
and adapted for gnawing. The canines are long and curved. 
The first upper pre-molar is smali while the third is the sec- 
torial and is the largest tooth, being trenchant with three ex- 
ternal cusps and an internal tubercle. The molar is small. 
The lower molar is the sectorial which has two nearly equal 
cusps and a posterior talon or tubercle. 
The zygomas are widely arched laterally. The skull is short 
and usually arched, the orbits being large and the longitudinal 
crest less powerfully developed than in Canide. There is no 
ali-sphenoid canal. The bull are divided into two chambers. 
There are but thirteen dorsal vertebre. 
The Felide live almost exclusively upon fiesh and prefer 
living prey, upon which most species creep with remarkable 
patience and skill, and rarely pursue an animal which they 
have failed to secure at the first spring. A remarkable habit 
which prevails among the cats is that of prolonging the excite- 
ment of the chase by trifling with the prey after it is partially 
disabled. 
The Felide do not hunt in packs but singly, or, during the 
youth of the kittens, in pairs. The cats have a most interest- 
ing and pathetic affection for the young, which are cared for 
with unwearying devotion and protected with unreserved self- 
sacrifice. There are ordinarily two or three young, although 
domestic races become more prolific. The maternal instinct is 
so great that the young of other animals are often adopted 
when the mother is deprived of her kittens. 
The living members of the family may be grouped in three 
genera, the principal one Felis containing the cats proper, the 
second, Lynx, the short-tailed northern cats, and the third, 
Cynelurus, the cheetah, or hunting leopard. 
The last named genus contains three species, or more proba- 
bly. three varieties of a single species. These are C. jubatus. 
C. guttatus and C. lanea. The head is cat-like but the body is 
more like that of a dog, the legs being long and the claws not 
retractile. The pupil is round instead of linear, and various 
osteological peculiarities distinguish this genus quite fully 
from the cats proper. The several forms are found from India 
to southern Africa. 
GENUS FELIS. 
Although numerically the largest genus of the Felide it is 
represented in the United States by a single species, the pan- 
ther or cougar. There are between forty and forty-five species 
