THE CAT. 



"89 



groat pomp and state, they were led out as fitting attendants on royalty. They were used also for 

 destroying criminals ; and, in still more barbarous regions, their skins and heads were conspicuous 

 portions of the war-dress, while a string of their teeth proved an acceptable gift from a chief of the 

 desert to his young bride. 



The power and ferocity of the larger animals are constantly displayed before our eyes, though on 

 a smaller scale. The cat which springs upon the mouse is really as formidable in its ability to injure, 

 within its peculiar range, as the lion which bears away the antelope from the herd. The same 

 instincts guide each to the same destruction of the lives of others of the animal creation, ami 

 throughout all nature the like necessities produce the like effects. 



The covering of the brain constitutes, in most species of the cat kind, a uniform bony 

 partition which leaves a quadrangular opening in the lower part of the cranium. In the cat, the 

 brain forms T ' T of the body. Blumenbach enumerates the cat kind among the animals remarkable for 

 their acuteness in the sense of smelling, and as affording examples of a very complicated formation of 

 the principal bone.* The sense of hearing .is acute in most of the cats. Their sight is acute, and 

 they have the nictitating membrane covering the ball of the eye whenever this is desirable of 

 which we have a familiar instance in birds, very large and movable. The pigment, as far as we know, 

 is, generally speaking, of two colours ; and the anterior perforation of the iris is formed of two segments 

 of large circles joined, giving it a long and short axis, the long axis being vertical. 



The skeleton of all the feline animals presents a light but well-built mechanism. The bones, 

 though slender, are extremely compact ; the trunk, having to contain the simple digestive apparatus 

 requisite for the assimilation of highly-organised animal food, is comparatively slender, and flattened 



TF.KTII OF DOMESTIC CAT. 



SKELETON OF DOMESTIC CAT. 



at the sides. The muscular forces are thus enabled to carry the light body along by extensive bounds; 

 and it is thus that the largest felines generally make their attack. 



The osteology, or bony structure, of these animals presents little for the distinction of species, 

 except size; and in no animal does specific character depend on size and colour more entirely than it 

 does in this family. Differences, indeed, occur; such, for instance, as that pointed out by Professor 

 Owen between the skull of the lion and that of the tiger ; but, taken as a whole, the skeleton of a rat 

 is very nearly the miniature representation of that of a lion or a tiger. 



The teeth of the animals of this group consist of six small and nearly equal incisors in each jaw, 

 disposed in an almost straight line in front of the mouth ; of two canines bounding the series of 

 incisors, those of the upper jaw of great length, strong, conical, sharp-pointed, slightly incurved, 

 passing, as in all carnivorous creatures when the mouth is closed, behind those of the lower, which 

 scarcely differ from them in form, but are somewhat inferior in size and power; and of cheek-teeth, 

 which require a more particular description. 



There are four in number in the tipper jaw, and generally three in the lower ; the two anterior 

 in both series are smaller than the third, and furnished each with a single, and somewhat conical, 



' The ethmoid bone. 



VOL. II. 



12 



