THE CAT. 
13 
Skull of a Cat. 
legs from being jolted and hurt. Touch the 
pads; you will find them as smooth as velvet, 
and as soft as india-rubber. 
5. Try to find the sharp claws with which the 
cat scratches, and climbs, and seizes its prey. 
There are five to each front foot, and four to 
each hind foot. You cannot always see them, 
for when their owner does not want to use them 
they are drawn back, and 
hidden away in their 
sheaths, or cases. 
6. If you move the cat's 
lip aside, you will catch 
sight of four long, pointed 
teeth, which are used for tearing its food into 
pieces. We might tell by the shape of the 
teeth that the cat is a flesh eater. They are not 
shaped for grinding up the food, as our double 
teeth are. 
7. If the cat licks your hand you find that its 
tongue is dry and rough. It seems to scrape 
your skin. How useful such a tongue must be 
to the cat and to her cousins, the lions and tigers, 
for clearing the flesh from the bones of their 
prey. 
8. If you look at the cat's eye when the light 
is bright, you will see that the middle part of it 
looks like a thin, dark line. This is called the 
