738 



animal of 

 from the 

 than t\vo 



CAT. 



considerable size, being sometimes four feet 

 nose to the tail, and having the tail more 

 feet long. Its height at the shoulder is a 



few inches more than two feet. Its frame is not 

 nearly so compact or so muscular as that of the 

 jaguar ; and though, in the wild state, it displays 

 nearly the same disposition as the other large species 

 of th genus, it is greatly inferior in strength, courage, 

 and activity, to many which are inferior in size. It 

 is represented, however, as being rather a voracious 

 animal, and keeping its food with great pertinacity 

 after that food has been once obtained. 



The puma is found both in South and in North 

 America, probably with some varieties of colour ; 

 and if we are to credit some of the anecdotes which 

 are related of it, we should be apt to consider it as a 

 more formidable animal in the colder latitudes than 

 in the warmer. This is certainly contrary to the 

 natural analogies of the genus ; and some of the 

 anecdotes are, besides, such as cannot easily be 

 brought within the range even of possibility. It has, 

 for instance, been gravely said, that the puma has 

 been known to carry the body of a man that it had 

 killed up into a tree. Now, in the first place, it has 

 not been very satisfactorily ascertained that the puma 

 is a climber of trees, even when it is not loaded ; in 

 the second place, if this were ascertained, it would 

 be an argument against the killing of the man, for the 

 tree-cats are chiefly catchers of birds, squirrels, and 

 monkeys ; and, in the third place, notwithstanding all 

 the marvels that have been told of lions and tigers, 

 there is no feat at all comparable with this told of 

 either of them. We have heard a similar story of a 

 common brown bear carrying the body of a horse 

 along a single tree which lay across a wide and 

 deep ravine in the Scandinavian forests, but we never 

 supposed that the tale was meant to be believed, and 

 the feeling with regard to this feat of the puma is 

 much of the same kind. 



The more probable accounts represent the puma 



as attacking only the weaker animals, and as hoarding 

 or burying its food ; and pumas, when tamed, can be 

 made to play with substances in the same way as 

 young cats, only they are more indolent, and their 

 motions not so graceful. It is well ascertained that 

 the puma is very easily tamed, mid that, if it is fed, 

 it shows not the least disposition to attack any ani- 

 mal, but shows considerable aifection for those who 

 are attentive to it. Its general mariners are more 

 like those of the domestic cat than perhaps any 

 others of the genus, more so even than the wild cat 

 of Europe, which is often, though it would seem 

 erroneously, considered as the parent stock of the 

 domestic. The puma watches for birds in the same 

 manner, and with the same action of the body, as the 

 domestic cat, and, like that animal, it purrs when 

 caressed. 



THE CAT (Felis catus). Though we consider the 

 specific difference between the wild cat and the do- 

 mestic to be much better established than that of 

 many others of the genus which are described as 

 distinct species, yet we shall, for the sake of brevity, 

 include both in a short notice. The following figure 

 will show the character and expression of the wild 

 cat. 



Wild Cat. 



This figure, which is a very faithful representation, 

 will show that the wild cat is a much more ferocious 

 and formidable animal than the tame one. The teeth 

 and claws are more powerful, the ears are shorter 

 and differently shaped, the eyes are more glaring, and 

 the whole appearance of the animal is more ferocious. 

 There are also some peculiarities of the internal 

 structure which indicate an animal of more exclusively 

 carnivorous disposition ; the chief of which is that the 

 intestines are shorter. This is a difference which 

 could hardly be expected to arise from domestication, 

 though that might be considered as, in part at least, 

 occasioning the difference in the external appearance 

 of the animals. We may perhaps add that the wild 

 cat is a far more hardy anirnul, and braves the winter, 

 exposed to the weather in even the coldest districts 

 of Britain, in which it is in fact more at home, and 

 attains a larger size than in wanner places. The 

 domestic cat, on the other hand, from its fondness for 

 basking in the sun or near the fire, indicates a more 

 southerly origin, though it does not appear that there 

 is any species now existing in the warm latitudes that 

 can be considered as the parent stock. The one 

 which comes nearest to it in manners is probably the 

 puma ; but to consider that as the parent race is out 

 of the question. There is one consideration which 



