150 THE DOMESTIC CAT. 



perfect darkness, they can certainly perceive them 

 with much less light than most other animals. 

 This is owing to the peculiar structure of their 

 eyes, the pupils of which are capable of being 

 contracted or dilated, in proportion to the degree 

 of light by which they are affected. In broad 

 day-light the pupil of the Cat's eye is usually 

 contracted into a mere line : but in the dusk of 

 the evening it resumes its natural roundness, and 

 the animal enjoys perfect vision. The eyes of 

 Cats have been remarked to shine with a bright 

 light, when they are in the dark. This light has 

 been commonly supposed to proceed from reflec- 

 tion ; but, as it is frequently observable in perfect 

 darkness, we must look to some other mode of 

 accounting for it. It may, probably, be allied to 

 what we observe in putrifying meat, rotten wood, 

 phosphorus, and the glow-worm. 



These animals have a natural aversion to wetting 

 themselves; yet they are extremely fond of fish, 

 either raw or cooked ; and they devour these, 

 with voracity, whenever they can get them. Some 

 Cats have so far conquered their aversion as to 

 catch, or attempt to catch, fish, as they lie asleep 

 by the sides, or in the shallows, of streams or ponds. 

 A friend of Dr. Darwin saw a Cat catch a trout, by 

 actually darting upon it in a deep, clear water, at 

 the mill at Weaford, near Litchfield*. And several 



* Darwin's Zoonomia, 8vo. edit. i. p. 225. 



other 



