CHORDA TA 403 



able. One or two related animals may be noticed, such as the 

 ichneumon, or Pharaoh's rat, of Egypt and northern Africa, a 

 valuable animal which feeds on crocodile eggs as well as snakes, 

 lizards, and rats; and the mongoose of India, which kills large 

 serpents and other venomous animals, and is consequently kept 

 in a state of semi-domestication. 



The members of the Felidae, or cat family, have five digits in 

 front and four behind, and the toes are armed with sharp, 

 curved claws which can be completely retracted between folds 

 of the skin, while the animal walks on the soft pads beneath. 

 The body and tail are covered with a more or less soft, thick 

 fur ; the tail is long, the face broad and short and never with an 

 elongated muzzle as in the dogs. While most of the cats are 

 terrestrial, some are arboreal, and nearly all have an intense 

 dislike for the water. There are some fifty species, which are 

 found in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America; 

 the majority belong to Asia. The largest existing cat is the 

 tiger, Felts tigris, which may attain a length of three and a third 

 meters, exclusive of the tail ; it is tawny yellow in color with 

 black stripes about the body and a ringed tail ; it is most abun- 

 dant in southern Asia but extends northward through China 

 and even into southern Siberia. The lion, Felis lea, is neither 

 as large nor as strong as the tiger ; a full-grown male is scarcely 

 three meters in length without the tail, and weighs about three 

 hundred kilos ; they are said to live to an age of thirty or forty 

 years. The lion is found throughout Africa, and in Asia in the 

 southwestern countries as far east as western Hindustan. The 

 color of the hair is generally a yellowish brown. The male is 

 larger than the female and has a mane on the neck and head, 

 sometimes dark or even black in color ; the tail in both sexes is 

 tipped with a black tuft of hairs. 



The leopard, or panther, Felis pardus, is likewise confined to 

 the eastern hemisphere ; the head and body are but little over a 

 meter in length, and the tail is nearly as long. The color is 

 usually yellowish, with dark spots more or less grouped in 

 rosettes. It is arboreal in habit and occurs throughout Africa, 

 the whole of southern Asia as far as northern China and Japan, 

 and also in some of the East Indies. The puma, Felis concolor, 

 is found in North and South America, except in the colder por- 



