76 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



lady was sitting working in her drawing-room, and the cat 

 and bird were a short distance off. Suddenly, without a 

 moment's deliberation, the cat, to the great astonishment of 

 the lady, uttered a loud growl, and then, seizing her little 

 playmate in her mouth, darted off with it to a place of safety. 

 A strange cat had entered the room and the friendly one had 

 adopted this plan of saving the bird from the enemy. A 

 still more remarkable illustration of the intelligence of a cat 

 is given by De la Croix as follows: "I once saw," says he, 

 "a lecturer upon experimental philosophy place a cat under 

 the glass receiver of an air-pump, for the purpose of demon- 

 strating that very certain fact, that life, cannot be supported 

 without air and respiration. The lecturer had already made 

 several strokes with the piston, in order to exhaust the receiver 

 of its air, when the animal, who began to feel herself very 

 uncomfortable in the rarefied atmosphere, was fortunate enough 

 to discover the source from which her uneasiness proceeded. 

 She placed her paw upon the hole through which the air 

 escaped, and thus prevented any more from passing out of 

 the receiver. All the exertions of the philosopher were now 

 unavailing ; in vain he drew the piston ; the cat's paw effect- 

 ually prevented its operation. Hoping to effect his purpose, 

 he let air again into the receiver, which, as soon as the cat 

 perceived, she withdrew her paw from the aperture; but 

 whenever he attempted to exhaust the receiver, she applied 

 her paw as before. All the spectators clapped their hands 

 in admiration of the wonderful sagacity of the animal, and the 

 lecturer found himself under the necessity of liberating her, 

 and substituting in her place another, that possessed less pene- 

 tration, and enabled him to exhibit the cruel experiment." 



The Lynx. The several species of the Lynx belong to the 

 genus Lyncus, the principle varieties of which are the Canada 

 Lynx, and the European Lynx. The Lynx has short legs, 

 and is generally about the size of a fox, attaining often to 

 three feet in length. It preys upon small quadrupeds and 



