PUSSY HUNTING 153 



the wild cat of the Highlands and the despised 

 prowler of the back yards are in all essentials 

 the same as the leopard and the tiger, down to 

 the nerves which at exciting moments agitate their 

 tails. There are exceptions. The cheetah has 

 evolved length of leg and has become a chaser, 

 losing to a great extent the characteristically cat- 

 like power of retracting its claws in the process. 

 The most apart members of the family, the lynxes, 

 are more particularly adapted to an arborescent 

 life, and certain not very considerable peculiarities 

 of body the long, tufted external ears, for example 

 distinguish them in appearance. But otherwise 

 the cat family, with its great number of species 

 and its wo rid -wide range, is a family with remark- 

 able adherence to one design. 



The prowling cats at present hunting 1 in the 

 gardens have few sympathizers, and everybody is 

 ready to fling a stone at them. Probably, how- 

 ever, the town sparrow, with its rat -like powers 

 of multiplication, its seven -month -long breeding 

 season, and the complete security of its nesting - 

 places, would become a great nuisance were its 

 cheepers not extensively thinned by feline enter- 

 prise. Already the farmers are complaining that 

 the town sparrows visit them in vast droves in the 

 autumn and take heavy toll of their ripening grain. 



