CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 5. CARNIVORA. 



273 



congeners, crouching among covers, and carefully concealing themselves from all publicity. They 

 breed in the woods or thickets, and support themselves upon birds or young animals. Sir W. 

 Jardin says, that " few extensive rabbit-warrens want two or three depredators of this kind, where 

 they commit great havoc, particularly among the young in summer. They sleep and repose in 

 the holes, and are often taken in the snares set for their prey. I once came upon a cat which 

 had thus left her home : she had newly kittened in the ridge of an uncut corn-field. Upon 

 approaching, she showed every disposition to defend her progeny, and beside her lay dead two 

 half-grown leverets." These Egyptian cats may therefore be the degenerate offspring of the civil- 

 ized cats which figure so largely in the early history of Egypt, and whatever difference there may 

 be between those and the other varieties, can be accounted for by the influence of climate and 

 condition. There is doubtless a tendency in the wild races of animals of the same species to uni- 

 formity of color and structure, but still we see permanent varieties in the wild dogs of Asia — as, 

 for instance, the cuon and pariah ; we therefore do not find it necessary to reject the possibility 

 of similar permanent varieties in cats. 



THE JAGUAR. 



We shall now notice the American felidae. The most formidable of these animals is the 

 Jaguar, Felis onpa. Its length is four to five feet ; the tail two feet; the height two feet; the 

 ground-color of the body is yellow, marked with open black figures of a roundish form; in each 

 j)f these there is one or more small black spots. The marks are arranged in longitudinal lines, 

 learly parallel, along the body. The belly is almost white. The effect of* the whole is in the 

 ughest degree brilliant and beautiful. It appears, however, that there is considerable variety in 

 he shades of the colors and in the markings. The head of the animal is large, and the jaws have 

 ;reat power of expansion. The general form is robust, and has a somewhat heavy but still 



Vol. I. — 35 



