THE DOMESTIC CAT. 



61 



In some places the Wild Cat is regularly hunted, usually in winter, when the tracks in the snow 

 are easily followed. The sport has the necessary element of danger to no ordinary degree, for the 

 terrible little beast, if wounded, makes straight for the hunter, and attacks him with tooth and claw, 

 and such teeth and such claws are by no means pleasant things to be wounded with. On the whole, 

 we have hardly reason to be sorry that the race is almost extinct in Great Britain. 



THE DOMESTIC CAT.* 



This animal the Cat par excellence is, next to the Dog, the flesh-eater which possesses for us 

 the greatest personal interest, as it is, with the exception of the Dog, almost the only quadruped 



COMMON WILD CAT. 



regularly admitted into the society of man, eating from his hand, drinking from his cup, and being to 

 him, if not a firm friend, like its canine relative, at least a comfortable, contented companion, adding 

 greatly by its look of calm repose and its contented purr to the cosiness of the fireside. 



The origin of the Domestic Cat is so far distant that it is quite uncertain from what wild 

 species it was derived. It is not once mentioned in the Bible, a very curious circumstance, as it 

 was well known in Egypt, and it might have been expected that it would be named, with the Dog, 

 among the unclean animals. Cats " are mentioned in a Sanskrit writing 2,000 years old, and in 

 Egypt their antiquity is known to be even greater, as shown by monumental drawings and their 

 mummied bodies." From many circumstances it seems probable that the Cat had, like the Dog, a 

 multiple origin, that is, was produced by the commingling of several wild forms. It is certain that 

 our Domestic Cats will breed freely with many of their feral brethren, such as the Common Wild Cat, 

 the Chaus, Viverrine, and Rusty-spotted Cats, &c. 



Wherever the Cat is found as a domesticated animal it is held in great esteem. This feeling was 

 carried to its greatest extent by the ancient Egyptians, whose devotion to their pets was such that, 

 according to Herodotus, when a fire broke out, they cared for nothing but the safety of their Cats, 

 and were terribly afflicted if one of them fell a victim to the flames. On the death of a Cat, the 



* Felis domestica. 



