244 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



Several writers have drawn attention to the 

 markedly viperine look of the head of an enraged 

 cat, when, with ears pressed flat, with eyes glassy 

 and glaring, and with exposed fangs, it faces an 

 enemy. Miss C. Hopley, in her well-known 

 work on Snakes (p. 375), draws the same com- 

 parison from the opposite standpoint, and alludes 

 to one circumstance which I have not found noted 

 elsewhere : " When a viperine snake yawns ex- 

 tensively, as it so often does, you may sometimes 

 perceive the fangs partially erected or entirely so, 

 or the vibratile motion in them observed by 

 Fayrer. When the snake is angry, this vibra- 

 tile action is much like that of a cat gnashing 

 its teeth." 



Moreover, when so situated a cat invariably 

 renders its tail as conspicuous as possible, and 

 switches it with a peculiar sinuous movement 

 from side to side. This habit is also remarkably 

 snake-like, for it has been remarked that nearly 

 all snakes when angry and about to strike will jerk 

 their tails to and fro. " Excitement," says Miss 

 Hopley, "displays itself in the tail of a snake as 

 much as in the tail of a doo-." 



Now when one of the more formidable en- 

 emies of the cat tribe finds itself confronted by 



