24 TEXT-BOOK OF ZOOLOGY 



Family i : Cats (Felidae). 



The Domestic Cat (Felis domestica). 



A. Origin and Distribution. 



Its love of warmth alone would seem to show that the cat is not a 

 native of our climate (a probable descendant of the wild cat of our 

 mountain forests), but a true child of the South. In Nubia, Abyssinia, 

 the Soudan, and Palestine, it is still met with in a savage or semi-savage 

 state, under the name of Desert Cat (F. maniciilatd) . The ancient 

 Egyptians early recognised the worth of this animal, regarding it as 

 sacred, and embalming its body after death. Whoever killed a cat was 

 punished with death, like an ordinary murderer. From Egypt the cat 

 has spread almost over the whole earth, and is found wherever man has 

 settled in fixed habitations, for the cat is more attached to its home than 

 to its master. In the course of thousands of years its coat has lost the 

 protective colouring of the desert possessed by that of its original parents, 

 for, being now under man's protection, it no longer needs that of Nature. 

 The colour of the skin is very variable, as is frequently the case with 

 domestic animals, but never with those living in a state of nature. 



The varieties of cats produced by breeding are not nearly as numerous 

 as those of the dog (see under " Dog"). 



B. The Cat as Inmate of the House. 



Every lover of Nature admires her slender graceful shape, her 

 extraordinary agility in all her movements, her elegant accurately-aimed 

 leaps, her great skill in climbing. Her confiding disposition and great 

 cleanliness merit the favour of her owners. How carefully she cleans 

 and licks her soft, thick, many-coloured fur ! Every hair, from the 

 head to the tip of the tail, is smoothed and arranged, every speck of dirt 

 removed. Her excrement she carefully covers with earth. And what an 

 attractive sight is a cat with her kittens, of which she usually produces 

 two broods in a year, of four to six each ! At first the kittens are blind, 

 weak and helpless, and the mother nurses them, licks and cleans them, 

 protects and guards them with devoted care. As they grow older we see 

 her play with them, and give them lessons in their future occupation, so 

 useful to ourselves, the catching of mice. 



Many cats, however, are dainty, and fond of killing the feathered 

 songsters of our gardens. This should be prevented as far as possible. 

 The cat is sometimes said to be treacherous, because she scratches when 

 she is tormented ; but we defend ourselves when attacked, and the cat 

 only does the same. 



