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borne in mind that animals of this genus always hunt 

 singly, and that, therefore, they never can master any 

 animal which is above the strength and arts of the 

 individual. The genus Canis, on the other hand, 

 generally make their attacks in packs or parties, even 

 when they arc in a state of nature ; and thus they can 

 vanquish much more powerful prey, as compared with 

 the strength of the individual, than the genus under 

 consideration. The present animal is not merely 

 a woodland species, but it is an inhabitant of trees, 

 lying there in wait tor its prey so habitually, that the 

 substantive part of its name, in the language of 

 Sumatra, is Dalian, which means the fork of a tree. 

 Its usual prey consists of birds and the smaller 

 species of deer, some of which, in that country, are 

 not larger than rabbits, if so large. It has, indeed, all 

 the characters of that division of the genus which, 

 from their resemblance to the domestic variety, are 

 more peculiarly called cats. From all the accounts 

 which we have, it appears that this animal could be 

 domesticated with the greatest ease ; and that if fed, 

 it is good tempered and playful, and courts fondling 

 with as much solicitude as a pet cat ; but its proneness 

 to climbing and bird catching are so strong, that there 

 is no keeping it out of the woods. This fondness for 

 trees and birds is no argument against a considerable 

 similarity of disposition with the common domestic cat; 

 for in all countries, cats are very partial to climbing 

 and bird catching ; and, in British Guiana, where the 

 settlements are near the woods, and the woods not 

 only swarming with birds, but have the stems of 

 the different trees so festooned and interlaced with 

 twining and climbing plants, that cats can mount to 

 the very tops with as much facility as sailors mount 

 the shrouds of vessels, the colonists are obliged to 

 crop the ears of their cats close to the head, in order 

 to prevent them from going to the woods. 



The extreme sensibility of the interior of the ear 

 renders any substance very annoying to them in that 

 part, and more especially moisture. Cats thus cropt, 

 cannot therefore go into the open air at all during the 

 rains ; and even in the dry season they cannot 

 pursue their feathered prey in the woods at night, 

 which is their favourite hunting time, because even 

 then the leaves are generally covered with heavy dew, 

 which the progress of the cat causes them to twitch 

 into the exposed openings of the ears ; and thus the 

 cat is obliged to stay at home and pursue her mouse 

 and rat catching, which are no sinecures at a sugar 

 work. 



THE LEOPARD (Felis Icopardus}. The name leopard 

 is a fabulous one in its original application, and it has 

 occasioned no small embarrassment in the history of 

 all the larger spotted cats of the eastern continent ; 

 nor is the difficulty yet over, for though a tolerably 

 clear distinction is supposed to be drawn between 

 the leopard and those other species to which it has 

 the nearest resemblance, and which, having indiscrimi- 

 nately been called leopards and panthers in many 

 instances, the distinction is more of a geographical 

 nature than of any other. The name is composed of 

 the two words, Ico (lion) and pardus (panther), and 

 the fable was, that the leopard was a mule or hybrid 

 between these two species, partaking of course of the 

 fabled generosity of the one and the savage dispo- 

 sition of the other. This of course was purely 

 imaginary, and even ridiculous, as being an attempt 

 to form distinctions of animals upon mental qualities, 

 qualities which, in the very nature of things, animals 



do not and cannot possess. The exhibitors of 

 animals, who have generally made matters worse, by 

 investing every beast in the show with all the mar- 

 vellous qualities which they could hear of or invent, 

 and representing it as coming from the most terrible 

 spot upon earth, and perpetrating the most sangui- 

 nary deeds, these have increased the confusion, and 

 popular describers have done little to diminish it. So 

 that the true distinction between the leopard and the 

 panther remains as much a mystery as ever; and as 

 the only difference between them is in size and mark- 

 ing, and perhaps in that more active and playful but 

 milder disposition, which seems to be connected with 

 smallness of size in this genus of animals, it is possible 

 that the animals may be only climatal varieties of the 

 same original species. 



The circumstances of development in size, and sul- 

 lenness and ferocity of disposition, always going hand 

 in hand in animals of the cat tribe, is a very important 

 point, though it is one which has not much, if at all, 

 attracted the attention of naturalists. It strongly 

 points out the value of a doctrine which is yet but in 

 its infancy, and which the ignorant and the prejudiced 

 are up in arms against, in the same way in which 

 they have been in arms against every scientific dis- 

 covery so long as that discovery was new, and those 

 bigots had the majority of mankind on their side. 

 The doctrine to which we allude is that of a perfect 

 type in the different natural families of animals, to 

 which all the individuals of the family have a ten- 

 dency to approximate, but which counteracting cir- 

 cumstances never suffer them exactly to reach. They 

 however come nearer to the type in proportion as 

 the circumstances in which they are placed are more 

 favourable to the typical development, and they 

 also stop farther short of it in proportion as the 

 circumstances in which they are placed are less 

 favourable. This doctrine has been, by the persons 

 above alluded to, stigmatised as having a tendency 

 towards materialism, and even to a denial of the 

 existence of God ; and they who have made those 

 allegations have, like small curs which are unable to 

 fight, exhibited their nature by snarling. 



Now, we have only to bear in mind how powerfully 

 these physical discoveries, of which the illustrious 

 Galileo may be said to have been the founder, have 

 conduced both to the natural proof of the existence 

 of the Creator, and to those sublime and striking views 

 of his power and wisdom, as displayed in creation, and 

 bear in mind that Galileo was constrained to abjure 

 the truth for a time, in order to escape martyrdom at 

 the hands of an ignorant and bigotted church, as one 

 who was subverting religion, and we can learn how 

 to estimate those small calumnies of the ignorant of 

 modern times. 



It is true that this doctrine of types is one which 

 calls for the very nicest investigation, and one in 

 which conjecture cannot advance a single step, and 

 in this it agrees exactly with the physical doctrine 

 above alluded to. It was because that doctrine 

 demanded of men that they should advance no 

 opinion for which they could not show cause, that 

 physical philosophy, in all its departments, has become 

 matter of certainty and demonstration ; and until we 

 can carry a similar principle into the philosophy of 

 living nature, we can never hope to find in that any 

 thing better than a conflict of opinions fiercely 

 opposed to each other, and all substantially wrong ; 

 just as we find in the physical systems of the ancients, 



