CIVETS, MACHAIRODONTS, AND CATS 175 



carnassial in the upper jaw, is three-rooted, as in the dogs, and 

 divided into three lobes in front, with an inner tubercle. The 

 single pair of molars in the upper jaw are minute, functionless 

 teeth on the road to complete disappearance. They are placed 

 at right angles to the long premolar carnassials, are small, and 

 tubercular. In the lower jaw there are only two pairs of pre- 

 molars, and the first pair is quite unimportant. The single pair 

 of molars in the lower jaw form the carnassial teeth, and are 

 reduced to a large, narrow, bi-lobed blade, perhaps the most 

 powerful cutting tooth in the head. Another point in which the 

 cats are less specialised than the modern dogs is in the presence 

 of fairly well-developed collar bones, though these are not 

 sufficiently prolonged to make the complete shoulder girdle. 

 There are five complete toes on the fore feet, the first, or thumb, 

 being very short and placed rather high up, but provided with as 

 large a claw as the other fingers ; but the hind feet have only 

 four functional toes, the first toe being merely represented by 

 a rudimentary metatarsal bone concealed under the skin. The 

 claws are large in all species, perhaps smallest in the serval. 

 They are strongly curved, compressed, and sharp, and are (except in 

 one genus) completely retractile, though perhaps more markedly so 

 in the fore feet than in the hind limbs. All these conditions of 

 the claws, however, are perhaps exceeded in specialisation by 

 those of the later Machairodonts. In one genus of True Cats, the 

 cheetah {Cynalurus), the claws have to a great extent lost their 

 retractility and sharpness, and protrude from the sheaths a little, 

 like those of a dog ; but this is due to degeneration rather than 

 because it is a primitive characteristic, the cheetah having taken to 

 developing great length of limb and swiftness in running. In all 

 cats existing at the present day the ears are of moderate size, the 

 eyes are rather large, and the tongue is thickly covered with 

 sharp-pointed, recurved, horny papillae, so much so that in the 

 lion and tiger the tongue is a rasp which can remove pieces of flesh 

 from the bone. 



The cats for the most part exhibit spots and stripes of dark 

 on light as a marking of their fur, whole-coloured cats, indeed, 



