50 DOMESTIC CATS. Chap. I. 



many cases have largely to support themselves and to escape 

 diverse dangers. But man, owing to the difficulty of pairing 

 cats, has done nothing bj' methodical selection ; and probably 

 very little by unintentional selection ; though in each litter 

 he generally saves the prettiest, and values most a good breed 

 of mouse- or rat-catchers. Those cats which have a strong 

 tendency to prowl after game, generally get destroyed by 

 traps. As cats are so much petted, a breed bearing the same 

 relation to other cats, that lapdogs bear to larger dogs, would 

 have been much valued ; and if selection could have been 

 applied, we should certainly have had many breeds in each 

 long-civilized countr}^ for there is plenty of variability to 

 work upon. 



We see in this country considerable diversity in size, some 

 in the proportions of the body, and extreme variability in 

 colouring. I have only lately attended to this subject, but 

 have already heard of some singular cases of variation ; one 

 of a cat born in the West Indies toothless, and remaining so 

 all its life. Mr. Tegetmeier has shown me the skull of a 

 female cat with its canines so much developed that they 

 protruded uncovered beyond the lips; the tooth with the 

 fang being "95, and the part projecting from the gum "6 of 

 an inch in length. I have heard of several families of six- 

 toed cats, in one of which the peculiarity had been trans- 

 mitted for at least three generations. The tail varies greatly 

 in length ; I have seen a cat which always carried its tail 

 flat on its back when pleased. The ears vary in shape, and 

 certain strains, in England, inherit a pencil-like tuft of hairs, 

 above a quarter of an inch in length, on the tips of their 

 ears; and this same peculiarity, according to Mr. Blyth, cha- 

 racterises some cats in India. The great variability in the 

 length of the tail and the lynx-like tufts of hairs on the ears 

 are apparently analogous to differences in certain wild species 

 of the genus. A much more important difference, according 

 to Daubenton,^^ is that the intestines of domestic cats are 

 wider, and a third longer than in wild cats of the same size ; 

 a ad this apparently has been by their less strictly carnivorous 

 diet. 



" Quoted by IsiJ. Geoffrov, ' Hint. Nat. Gen., torn iii. p. 427. 



