44 THE NATURE STUDY COURSE. 



Infer, too, the cat's need of long sensitive whiskers in hunting 

 her prey in dark holes and corners. 



Compare the tongues of the dog and cat as to smoothness 

 and moistness. It will be reported that the cat has a rough 

 tongue and the dog a smooth wet one. Continue questions to 

 bring out the uses of the roughness in scraping food off bones 

 and in " combing" the fur. Can a cat gnaw a bone ? Compare 

 their food and methods of eating and drinking, and how they 

 use their feet to get or hold food. 



Require a comparison of toes and claws leading to a 

 discovery of the number on the fore and hind limbs of each, 

 the hardness and roughness of the skin of the dog's toes, the 

 sharpness of the cat's claws, the sheaths of the latter. Follow 

 the observation up with reasoning wherever possible. What 

 is the use of the sheath ? Of the thickness of skin under the 

 dog's toe? Why does the cat need sharper claws than the 

 dog? (Food-hunting and escape from pursuit.) Require 

 these differences to be related to the habits of the animals. 

 Discuss methods of preventing cats from preying upon 

 robins and other song-birds ; suggest, for example, the experi- 

 ment of putting a bell on a ribbon to be tied around the cat's 

 neck. Compare dogs with cats as climbers. What are the 

 differences between the ways that boys and cats climb trees ? 



Question as to the eyes. Direct that a cat be taken into 

 a dark room for a time and that her eyes be observed when 

 she is brought to the light; that the same be done with a 

 dog. The experimenter will note that the large, round pupil 

 of the cat changes to a narrow vertical opening while the 

 dog's changes somewhat in size but not in shape. At this 

 stage you may have to give information as to the relation 

 between the area of the pupil and the amount of light 

 admitted ; then the class may proceed to reason out why the 

 cat can see better at night than the dog. 



