64 BULLETIN NO. VII. 



and adapted for gnawing. The canines are long and curved. 

 The first upper pre-molar is small 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 Canidse. There is no 

 ali- sphenoid canal. The bullse are divided into two chambers. 

 There are but thirteen dorsal vertebrae. 



The Felidce live almost exclusively upon flesh 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 Felidce 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, 

 Cyncelurus, 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 Felidce it is 

 represented in the United States by a single species, the pan- 

 ther or cougar. There are between forty and forty-five species 



