62 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



TEETH OF DOMESTIC CAT. 



inhabitants of the house shaved off their eyebrows, and the deceased animal was embalmed, and 

 buried with great solemnity in a sacred spot. Many Cat mummies have been found in the Egyptian 



tombs, and some are to be seen in the British Museum, together with 

 similarly preserved specimens of human beings, and of sacred Calves. 

 Some individuals were wrapped separately in ample bandages covered 

 with inscriptions; others of a less degree of sanctity were preserved 

 in numbers with a single wrapping for several. Their 

 movements and their cries were consulted as oracles, 

 and the murder, or even the accidental felicide of one 

 of them, was punished by death. 



The earliest account of the Cat in Britain is as 

 far back as A.D. 948. " That excellent prince Howel 

 Dha, or Howel the Good, did not think it beneath him, 

 among his laws relating to the prices, &c., of animals, 

 to include that of the Cat, and to describe the qualities 



it ought to have. The price of a kitling, before it could see, was to be a penny ; 

 till it caught a Mouse, twopence. It was required, besides, that it should be perfect 

 in its senses of hearing and seeing, be a good mouser, have the claws whole, and be 

 a good nurse ; but if it failed in any of these qualities, the seller was to forfeit to 

 the buyer the third part of its value. If any one stole or killed the Cat that guarded 

 the prince's granary, he was to forfeit a milch ewe, its fleece, and lamb, or as much 

 wheat as, when poured on the Cat, suspended by its tail (the head touching the 

 floor), would form a heap high enough to cover the tip of the former. This last 

 quotation is not only curious as being an evidence of the simplicity of ancient man- 

 ners, but it almost proves to demonstration that Cats are not aborigines of these 

 islands, or known to the earliest inhabitants. The large prices set on them, if 

 we consider the high value of specimens at that time, and the great care taken of the 

 improvement and breed of an animal that multiplies so fast, are almost certain proofs of their being 

 little known at that period."* Moreover, as the Wild Cat was abundant in Britain at this or at more 

 recent periods, it is tolerably certain that this species is not the parent of our domestic kinds. 



Little need be said about the anatomy of the Cat, for it differs but slightly from its larger relatives, 

 and hardly at all from the 

 smaller wild species. The 

 skull is smooth, and has its 

 ridges less developed than 

 in the great beasts of prey ; 

 the orbits are very large, 

 and the nose-region is ex- 

 tremely short, and forms a 

 continuous curve with the 

 forehead. Owing to these 

 two latter circumstances 

 the Cat is extremely round- 

 faced, more so, perhaps, 

 than any other species of 

 the genus. 



One curious point of structure is to be found in the intestines, which " are wider, and a third 

 longer, than in Wild Cats of the same size." There can be little doubt that this has been brought 

 about by the fact that the food of a domesticated flesh-eater is certain to be somewhat miscellaneous, 

 and not of the strictly carnivorous nature preferred by the animal in its wild state. 



The varieties in colour exhibited by the Cat are very great, and often kittens in the same litter 



MUMMY or 



EGYPTIAN CAT. 



SKELETON OF DOMESTIC CAT. 



* Pennant, "British Zoology." 



