100 HANDBOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



if she has kittens, she will attack any dog, almost always 

 driving him off. 



Wild members of the cat family. If you have ever seen 

 lions, tigers, and panthers in a circus, you must have noticed 

 at once that they are simply gigantic wildcats. Look at 

 their claws and teeth, if you have an opportunity. They 

 all catch their prey by crawling up to it and then seizing 

 it with a frightful leap. All members of the cat family 

 hunt singly ; but wolves and jackals often hunt in packs. 

 The largest member of the cat family in the United States 

 is the Puma or American Panther. 



Sheep and Cattle 



MATERIAL : Pictures of different breeds of sheep and cattle ; pictures 

 of wild sheep and cattle would also be desirable. A clean skull of a 

 sheep is very desirable ; a jawbone or several teeth of a cow ; horns of 

 sheep and cattle ; antlers of a deer. 



44. The Sheep. 



Ancestors and time of domestication. As early as 3000 B.C. 

 the sheep was a domesticated animal in Egypt. How long 

 before that man first tamed the sheep and kept herds of 

 them is not known. It was one of the domesticated ani- 

 mals of the old Hebrews, as numerous references to it in 

 the Old Testament show us. 



Asiatic peoples probably derived their stock of sheep 

 from wild species of that continent. According to recent 

 investigations arid experiments made in the " Tiergarten " 

 at Halle, Germany, the European breeds have for their 

 ancestor the Mouflon, which, to this day, lives wild on the 

 mountains of Corsica. Our American domestic sheep have, 

 of course, been introduced from Europe. 



The sheep is most valuable to people who need warm 

 clothing for cold winters. You know that savages wear 



