14 
CARNIVORA. 
for the glare of day, cannot bear the effect of fire- 
light in the dark. 
The puma has the pupil constantly circular ; yet 
this animal is as dangerous by day as by night ; or, 
to speak more correctly, he will hunt his prey in the 
trees while the sun is above the horizon. 
Of the lynxes, that found in the United States, 
called by the furriers the chat cervier, has complete 
cats^ eyes ; while the felis Canadensis, which is so 
nearly allied to it as at most to be a mere variety, has 
round pupils, yet the habits of both are similar. 
The Angora cat, when in little light, has the eye- 
pupils nearly, if not quite circular | they form an 
ellipsis more and more narrow as the light increases, 
till when exposed to the Sun they are almost linear*. 
If, then, it be considered, that the lion has round 
eye-pupils, though it is generally inactive by day, 
and hunts principally after sunset ^ that the pupils 
* If we refer to other genera^ we find considerable variety in this 
particular. To select a few : the genus canis has some species with 
circular^ and others with oval pupils | the hyaenas have them ex- 
tremely narrow ; the zibet, civet, and genet, have the pupils elon- 
gated transversely 3 the ichneumons and Caffrarian weesel have 
them like the cat | and yet, perhaps, none of these are more par- 
ticularly nocturnal than the rest of the carnivora, all of which appear 
to prefer the twilight or night for their predatory excursions. The 
^cloven-footed animals, the horse, and the whale, have transverse 
elliptical pupils | and the frugiverous sort, as the lemurs, squirrels, 
and loris, have them much larger than any other animals, but 
always circular | in the genus delphinus it assumes the figure of a 
heart| in the toads it is triangular j and in the allegators and sharks 
it is lozenge-shaped. 
