EXTINCT CATS 451 



ones fairly run it down. When we consider that no English greyhound ever yet, I 

 believe, fairly ran down a doe antelope, which is faster than the buck, some idea 

 may be formed of the stride and velocity of an animal who usually closes with her 

 immediately, but fortunately, cannot draw a second breath, and, consequently, 

 unless he strike the antelope down at once, is obliged instantly to stop and give up 

 the chase. He then walks about for three or four minutes in a towering passion, 

 after which he again submits to be helped on the cart. He always singles out the 

 biggest buck from the herd, and holds him by the throat until he is disabled, keep- 

 ing one paw over the horns to prevent injury to himself. The doe he seizes in the 

 same manner, but is careless of the position in which he holds her. ' ' 



Many tame hunting-leopards become perfectly gentle and docile, rubbing 

 themselves against the knees of visitors, and purring all the time like so many large 

 cats. It should be observed that the tamed individuals of this species merely use 

 their own natural instinct and develop no new mental powers as the result of 

 training. 



EXTINCT CATS 



In the course of this chapter reference has been made to the occurrence of ex- 

 isting species of the Cat family in caverns and other superficial deposits. There are, 

 however, in addition to these, a large number of fossil cats, differing more or less 

 markedly from all existing species, and many of which belong to extinct genera ; 

 and no account of the family would be complete without some reference, brief 

 though it must necessarily be, to these extinct types. Some of these, as shown by 

 the greater number of their teeth and other characteristics, belong to what natu- 

 ralists call more generalized types, and may have been the ancestral forms from 

 which the living cats have originated ; while others are more specialized than any 

 of the species living. 



Referring first to what may be called true extinct cats, or those belonging to 

 the genus Felis, we may mention that from strata belonging to the Pliocene or 

 upper portion of the Tertiary period in the Siwalik hills of India, there have been 

 obtained skulls of the great crested cat (_F. cristata} which must have been fully as 

 large as the tiger, but appears to show signs of affinity with the jaguar. Equally 

 large cats (F. atrox and F. augusta) have left their remains in the strata of the 

 same geological period in the United States. Numerous extinct cats of this genus 

 also occur in the Pliocene deposits of France and other countries on the continent 

 of Europe, but these are of smaller dimensions, as also are those found in beds 

 belonging to the upper half of the preceding Miocene period, below which true 

 cats are unknown. The Siwalik hills have also yielded the remains of a cat which 

 is believed to indicate the existence of a species of hunting-leopard at the period 

 when their rocks were in process of formation. 



Passing on not only to extinct species but likewise to extinct genera, we may 

 notice first those remarkable creatures known as sabre-toothed cats (MacJusrodus). 

 These cats, some of which were equal in size to the lion and tiger, are all char- 

 acterized by the enormous development of the tusks, or canine teeth of the 



