TOUCH. 199 



makes it both susceptible of cold, and, as Pennant 

 observed, terribly afraid of being beat. 



The cat also, as is well known, prefers the hearth- 

 rug to any other situation in a room, and though she 

 cannot be said to exhibit much contrivance in keeping 

 herself warm, compared at least with her insidious 

 cunning in taking her prey, she certainly shows most 

 surprising knowledge and tact in discovering the best 

 non-conductors of heat. Darwin would have con- 

 sidered this as an unequivocal proof of knowledge de- 

 rived from experience*; but as we cannot bring our- 

 selves to give cats the credit of discovering, and then 

 acting upon, the philosophic principles of the distribu- 

 tion of caloric, we shall venture upon the inference 

 from the fact that they are not indigenous (contrary 

 to the received opinion) to so cold a climate as Bri- 

 tain, and are impelled to search after warm places in 

 consequence of their great impatience of cold. 



The feet of the cat, though they are thickly clothed 

 with hair above, and padded with a soft cushion of 

 thickened epidermis, intermediate between cartilage 

 and tendon, on the soles, may be always observed to 

 be cold to the touch when the animal has been ex- 

 posed to a low temperature, as are the ears likewise, 

 and in such circumstances it manifests its uncomfort- 

 able feelings by restlessly wandering about till it can 

 find a warm corner. This very appetite (if it may 

 be so called) for warmth appeals to us to be the chief 

 cause which prevents our domestic cats from ever 

 becoming wild ; for in every part of the country where 

 there are woods, they might find abundant prey ; and 

 it is well known that when cats once take to bird- 

 catching in the woods, they never afterwards eat any 

 thing dead but with reluctance. We have had many 

 opportunities of observing cats in this half-wild state ; 

 but though they depended for food wholly upon the 

 * Zoonomia, i. 16 ; and Brown's Observ. p. 263. 



