DOMESTIC CATS. 429 



tint, while the lips and soles of the feet are not uncommonly flesh-coloured. The 

 occurrence of individuals with one blue and one yellow eye in this breed has been 

 already mentioned, while allusion has likewise been made to the opinion that the 

 Persian cat is descended from Pallas's cat of the Asiatic steppes. It was said some 

 years ago that the breed of these cats in Angora had been greatly reduced in 

 numbers, owing to their skins having been in large demand as furs. 



In Siam there is a breed of cats reserved for royalty, characterised by their 

 uniform, and often dark, fawn colour, their blue eyes, and the presence of two or 

 more perfectly bald spots on the forehead. Siam, together with Burma, also 

 possesses a breed known as the Malay cat, in \vhich the tail is but of half the 

 usual length, and is often, through deformity in its bones, tightly curled up into 

 a knot. These short-tailed Asiatic cats lead to the mention of the tailless cats of 

 the Isle of Man, in which the tail is either reduced to a mere stump, or almost 

 wanting. Owing, however, probably to the introduction of ordinary cats from the 

 mainland, cats in the Isle of Man are now to be met with having tails of all 

 lengths up to 10 inches. Tailless cats, according to Professor Mivart, also exist 

 in the Crimea, while they have been recorded by Kaempfer from Japan. 



The other domestic breeds to which we shall refer include the Mombas cat 

 from the eastern coast of Africa, said to be distinguished by its stiff and wiry hair, 

 and the Paraguay cat of South America, which is much smaller than ordinary cats, 

 with a long body, covered with close-lying short and scanty hair. The description 

 of the latter is suggestive of some affinity with the eyra of the same regions. 



Like many of the smaller wild species, the domestic cat has the pupil of the 

 eye reduced to a narrow vertical slit when at its smallest dimensions. It also agrees 

 with its wild cousins in the extremely small development of the sense of smell, 

 depending chiefly upon sight and the exquisite sense of perception residing in the 

 so-called "whiskers." The effects of domestication have, however, considerably 

 increased the reproductive powers of the cat, the tame races having young three or 

 four times during the year, and producing from five or six to eight or nine kittens 

 at a birth. 



With regard to its intelligence, Dr. Romanes observes that " the cat is un- 

 questionably a highly intelligent animal, though, when contrasted with its great 

 domestic rival the dog, its intelligence, from being cast in quite a different mould, 

 is very frequently underrated. Comparatively unsocial in temperament, wander- 

 ingly predacious in habits, and lacking in the affectionate docility of the canine 

 nature, this animal has never in any considerable degree been subject to the 

 psychological transforming influences whereby a prolonged and intimate associa- 

 tion with man has so profoundly modified the psychology of the dog. Never- 

 theless, the cat is not only by nature an animal remarkable for intelligence, but, 

 in spite of its naturally imposed disadvantage of temperament, has not altogether 

 escaped those privileges of nurture, which unnumbered centuries of domestication 

 could scarcely fail to supply. Thus, as contrasted with most of the wild species 

 of the genus when tamed from their youngest days, the domestic cat is con- 

 spicuously of less uncertain temper towards its masters the uncertainty of temper 

 displayed by nearly all the wild members of the feline tribe when tamed being, of 

 course, an expression of the interference of individual with hereditary experience. 



