CAT TRIBE, 
37 
flesh or breaking and crushing bones, which form an essential 
part of their food. The actual number of teeth, however, is much 
reduced, the dental formula being 1. 1-, C. P. |, M. \ x 2 = 30 
and the whole jaw is shorter in comparison with the length of 
the head, and therefore proportionally stronger. In the limbs 
the most noticeable characteristic is the peculiar shape and 
articulation of the toe-bones, which have direct reference to the 
power Cats possess of retracting their claws. Fig. 22 A shows 
the bones of a toe with the claw in its ordinary retracted state ; 
when the animal wishes to strike, the tendon (a) is drawn hack, 
and the whole terminal phalanx (3) with the claw attached is 
drawn downwards and forwards, as in B. At other times the 
claw is drawn back and kept from contact with the ground by ’ , 
an elastic ligament (J>). The sheath ( 5 ) into which the claw is 
fixed is present in all Carnivora, but in no other is it so much 
developed as in the present family. 
Of the Lion, Felis leo ( 410 ), several examples from different 
parts of Africa are exhibited. Lion-cubs show traces of the 
dark spots so general in the family of Cats. The present range 
of the Lion extends over the whole of Africa, through Persia, to 
the north-western corner of India. 
In case 18 is placed a specimen of the Ounce or Snow- [Case 18. 
Leopard, Felis imcia ( 417 ), a soft-furred, long-tailed species, 
which inhabits the snowy regions of the Himalaya and Central 
Asia, at elevations varying, according to the season, from 9000 
to 18,000 feet above the sea, never ranging very far below the 
snow-line. The same case contains specimens of different races 
of Leopard, Felis pardus ( 412 ), one of the largest of the spotted 
Cats, whose range extends over all Africa and Southern Asia 
as far north as Persia and Tibet. In India it is extremely 
destructive to cattle and other domestic animals, and aged 
individuals frequently become “ man-eaters.^^ The Jaguar, Felis 
onca ( 418 ), may be regarded as the American representative of 
the Leopard. 
The Tiger, Felis tigris ( 41 1 ), case 19, is the largest and most [Case 19. 
dangerous of the Felidce, exceeding the Lion slightly in size, and 
far surpassing it in destructiveness. It is one of the few Cats 
ornamented with cross-stripes on the body, a type of colouring 
