THE WILD CAT OF BRITAIN. 165 



shown by the skins preserved in the British Museum and 

 elsewhere. 



Mr. Darwin, in his "Voyage of the Beagle," 1845 

 (p. 120), in his notes of the first colonists of La Plata, 

 A.D. 1535, says, among other animals that he saw was 

 " the common cat altered into a lai-ge and fierce animal, 

 inhabiting the rocky hills," etc. 



Another point on which I wish to give my impressions 

 is the act of the cat in what is termed "sharpening its claws." 

 Mr. Darwin notes certain trees where the jaguars " sharpen 

 their daws^^^ and mentions the scars were of different ages ; 

 he also thought they did this "/^ tear off the hortiy points '^ 

 This, I believe, is the received opinion among naturaUsts ; 

 but I differ entirely from this view of the practice. It is 

 a fact, however, and worthy of notice, that all cats do so, 

 even the domestic cat. I had o?ie of the legs of a kitchen 

 table entirely torn to pieces by my cats ; and after much obser- 

 vation I came to the conclusion that it has nothing whatever 

 to do with sharpening the claws, but is done to stretch the 

 muscles and tendons of the feet so that they work readily and 

 strongly, as the retraction of the claws for lengthened periods 

 must tend to contract the tendons used for the purpose of 

 extending or retracting ; therefore the cats fix the points of 

 their claws in something soft, and bear downwards with the 

 whole weight of the body, simply to stretch and, by use, to 

 strengthen the ligatures that pull the claws forward. It is 

 also to be noted, that even the domestic cat goes to one par- 

 ticular place or tree to insert the claws and drag forward the 

 muscles — perhaps even in the leather of an arm-chair, a 

 costly practice. Why one object is always selected is that 

 they may not betray their presence by numerous marks in 

 the neighbourhood, if wild, to other animals or their enemies. 

 I have mentioned this to my brother, John Jenner Weir, 

 F.L.S., and he concurs with me throughout. 



I find in Strutt's "Sports and Pastimes" that of the 

 names applied to companies of animals in the Middle Ages, 

 several are still in use, though many have become obsolete ; 

 and also a few of the beasts have ceased to exist in a wild 



