CATS— GENUS FELIDM 13 



Their limbs are only of moderate dimensions, but very powerful, 

 and so constructed that they can make bounds of astonishing 

 length. Their colour enables them to easily lie concealed, and in 

 secluded spots they crouch and await their prey, which they seize 

 by suddenly springing on it. 



From the foregoing it will be readily seen that these animals 

 possess powers exquisitely adapted for the purpose of carrying 

 out their instincts and for self-preservation, either in obtaining 

 the food on which their existence depends, or in defending them- 

 selves from attack ; also that they are armed and fitted to wage 

 war and to maintain supremacy over other animals, and even to 

 be a formidable antagonist to man himself. 



The animal of this group which we naturally look for first is 

 the lion, the one uniting all the powers of his tribe in a super- 

 lative degree, and in strength, ferocity, and size only equalled by a 

 few of the very largest varieties of the tiger. 



Before passing on, however, it will be as well to say that it 

 would be far more instructive if writers would try and simply 

 describe the various members of the animal world as they are, 

 and not try to invest them with the same feelings and ideas that 

 actuate the human race, and then by drawing comparisons, 

 as it were, study them from that point of view, endeavour- 

 ing to create favourable or unfavourable impressions regarding 

 them as they approach or recede from the standard of man. Thus 

 writers frequently twist certain 'habits peculiar to certain indi- 

 vidual animals into acts denoting a generous or noble disposition, 

 or typical of the reverse, a vindictive or cowardly one, and so on, 

 up or down a gamut of adjectives that could only be correctly 

 applied to men exercising their powers in an identical manner, and 

 totally misleading when apphed to an animal simply acting after 

 its kind and obeying no laws but the laws of its nature. Thus 

 when perhaps merely exerting their faculties, or using the only 

 weapons Nature has provided them with in the capture of their 

 prey, the adjectives sneaking, bloodthirsty, and ferocious, can hardly 

 be applicable or convey the correct idea, any more than they could be 

 used to describe a butcher in his occupation, if the shambles did 

 not reek with blood spilt to gratify a savage nature or some other 



