CARNIVOROUS QUADRUPEDS. 45 



70. The animals of the first family, the Felidae, or Cat 

 tribe, are wholly carnivorous. They never eat vegetable 

 food in their wild state, and eat but little of it when do- 

 mesticated, as we know in the case of the common cat. 

 The Felidae, then, may be considered the typical* family 

 of this order. The animals which it includes are the most 

 destructive of all the Mammalia, and the body is framed 

 in every respect to conform to the carnivorous propensi- 

 ty. It has no unnecessary bulkiness, but is made as small 

 as it can be, consistent with the required strength. Bone, 

 and muscle, and sinew are well packed together, with 

 but little fat. The limbs are short, for these animals 

 need not to run so much as to leap in taking their prey. 

 They have cushions or pads on their feet, so that they 

 may approach their victims noiselessly. As they walk, 

 their sharp claws lie back above these pads in their 

 sheaths ; but when they wish to use them, they thrust 

 them forth from these sheaths by a very curious muscu- 

 lar apparatus. Their senses are acute, and they can see 

 by night as well as by day. Their whiskers are very 

 sensitive organs of touch, which are of service in passing 

 through thickets or narrow places. The tongue is cover- 

 ed with almost horny points, directed backward. These, 

 which every one has observed in the cat, are so large and 

 strong in the lion and tiger, that a smart stroke of the 

 tongue would strip off the skin from a man's hand. The 

 chief use of these points is to enable the animal to scrape 

 off all the flesh from a bone. The cat uses her tongue as 



* This word, which is often used in works on Zoology, I will ex- 

 plain. In every natural group of animals there is always some one 

 kind which exhibits the characteristics common to the group with 

 more distinctness and perfection than any of the rest, and this is said, 

 therefore, to be the type of the group. Thus, each genus has its typ- 

 ical species, each family its typical genus, each order its typical fam- 

 ily, and each class its typical order. Then there is more or less vari- 

 ation from the type, and those which vary considerably from it are 

 styled aberrant forms, from erro, to wander, and ab, from. So we 

 speak of aberrant species, genera, etc. 



