92 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
assistance; their sight, however, is good, and serves 
them equally well both by day and night, their extremely 
dilatable pupils adapting themselves with admirable 
precision to various intensities of light. To this object 
the frequently elongated form of their pupils, the gene- 
rally yellow colour of the internal or choroid coat of 
their eyes, and the extent of their nictitating membranes 
must also essentially contribute. 
No sooner is the object of their pursuit within reach 
of their attack, than suddenly bursting forth from their 
lurking place, or changing their slow and stealthy pace 
for a furious and overwhelming bound, they dart with 
the velocity of lightning upon their terrified victim. 
The great strength and extreme flexibility of their fore 
paws enable them at once to dash him to the earth, 
and to seize him with an irresistible grasp. They then 
proceed to rend him in pieces by the united efforts of 
their teeth and claws, and gorge themselves upon his 
lacerated flesh. It is only when fearful of bemg dis- 
turbed in their operations that they carry off the body 
from the spot where it has fallen; and even in such 
cases they never transfer it to their dens, but seek out 
some solitary place in which to glut their ravenous 
cravings. When satiated they quit the carcase, to 
which they never return, and retire to their dens to 
sleep off the effects of their gluttonous meal; not again 
to awake until their renovated appetite stimulates to a 
repetition of the murderous scene. Even their amours 
are accompanied with a degree of savage barbarity ; 
and the female is not unfrequently called upon to pro- 
tect their mutual offspring from the ravenous jaws of 
her male companion. 
Next to their ferocity, the leading feature in the 
moral character of all the Cats is suspicion. It is this 
which imparts, even to the largest and most powerful 
