CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 6. CARNIVORA. 2Y3 
congeners, crouching among covers, and carefully concealing themselves from all publicity. They 
breed in the woods or thickets, and support themselves upon birds or young animals. Sir W. 
Jardin says, that " few extensive rabbit-warrens want two or three depredators of this kind, where 
they commit great havoc, particularly among the young in summer. They sleep and repose in 
the holes, and are often taken in the snares set for their prey. I once came upon a cat which 
had thus left her home : she had newly kittened in the ridge of an uncut corn-field. Upon 
approaching, she showed every disposition to defend her progeny, and beside her lay dead two 
half-grown leverets." These Egj^ptian cats may therefore be the degenerate offspring of the civil- 
ized cats which figure so largely in the early history of Egypt, and whatever difference there may 
be between those and the other varieties, can be accounted for by the influence of climate and 
condition. There is doubtless a tendency in the wild races of animals of the same species to uni- 
formity of color and structure, but still we see permanent varieties in the wild dogs of Asia — as, 
for instance, the cuon and pariah ; we therefore do not find it necessary to reject the possibility 
of similar permanent varieties in cats. 
THE JAGUAE. 
"We shall now notice the American felidae. The most formidable of these animals is the 
Jaguae, Felis onga. Its length is four to five feet ; the tail two feet; the height two feet; the 
ground-color of the body is yellow, marked with open black figures of a roundish form ; in each 
of these there is one or more small black spots. The marks are arranged in longitudinal lines, 
nearly parallel, along the body. The belly is almost white. The effect of the whole is in the 
highest degree brilliant and beautiful. It appears, however, that there is considerable variety in 
the shades of the colors and in the markings. The head of the animal is large, and the jaws have 
great power of expansion. The general form is robust, and has a somewhat heavy but still^ 
YoL. L— 35 
