The Lesser Cats. 37 
large ears at once recall the civets, while in its skull and denti- 
tion it also resembles them closely. On account of its nocturnal 
habits and burrowing propensity, it presents little of interest to 
the student of animal life, the specimen in the Zoological 
Gardens, for example, being always buried in its straw, and 
apparently indifferent to whatever may be going on in the 
outside world. 
I shall now make a few remarks upon the lesser cats before 
proceeding to the families of bears and dogs. 
Those who insist on structural points as indicative of special 
provisions for the benefit of particular animals may be asked to 
reflect on the anatomy of the eye in the cat family generally. 
They are, it is admitted, mainly nocturnal, or, at all events, 
crepuscular in habit. Yet some possess a permanently expanded 
round pupil; others a cleft pupil, with highly contractile and 
extensile powers. Of the former group, the lion, tiger, &c., are 
examples; of the latter, the cats. The contractile pupil is held 
to be necessary, or, at least, advantageous to its possessor in 
excluding the superfluous light of day, in order that, when the 
light is feeble, the expansion of the organ may compensate, to 
some extent, the deficiency. Hence we are led to assume the 
retina to be peculiarly sensitive to light, and this contractile 
pupil to be the means of regulating the supply. Some writers 
affirm the lion to be entirely nocturnal when hunting. Be this 
as it may, both he and the tiger constantly seek for their prey 
at night; but neither of them is endowed with the form of pupil, 
accompanied by the sensitive retina, which is understood to be 
so advantageous to others of the family. Everyone knows that 
in daylight the vertical slit in a cat’s eye is constantly expanding 
and contracting slightly, and in strong sunlight it is reduced to 
a mere thin line. But if you put a mousetrap down and let 
pussy look at the captive in it, you will see the pupils expand as 
fully as they do in the dark. It is the same under the excite- 
ment of fear or anger. My retriever, one day, happened to come 
suddenly on a cat dozing in a warm corner of a yard. Accord- 
ing to his usual custom, he “stood” the cat at the distance of a 
