14 • WILD ANIMALS. 



motive than the existing necessity of appeasing hunger. The 

 tribe of cats suffers considerably at the hands of a certain class of 

 writers in being thus qualified with all thei awe-inspiring adjectives 

 to be found in the dictionary, whereas if the necessity of their 

 supplying their own food is removed, many species can be easily 

 tamed, become domesticated, and friendly and affectionate to man. 

 But suppose they had the power of describing their ideas of the 

 human race from their point of view what adjectives would be 

 required when alluding to those members of it who slaughter them 

 for mere wantonness, wounding and crippling the poor beasts for 

 life, causing lingering and painful deaths in the animal world 

 simply for pleasure, or to enable them to boast of their per- 

 formances in public ? 



It can hardly be questioned that it is far more satisfactory 

 to cast aside all these comparisons, and clearing the mind of 

 the prejudices they create, study the majority of all such animals 

 as wild beasts, a distinct and separate creation, endowed with no 

 reasoning power, but with characters, habits, and instincts sufficient 

 for them to perform those acts for which they exist. From this 

 point of view, new ideas and new lights must certainly be con- 

 tinually flashing across our mind as we learn the innumerable 

 powers they possess, view the manifold adaptations of their forms 

 for the purpose of carrying out the same object, or for the purpose 

 of fulfilling their mission in the world, and for which the creation 

 even of the Felidce was deemed necessary by the all-wise Creator. 



