TELIS. 
of the most grand and prevailing instincts 
of nature, to eat them immediately on pro- 
ducing them ; in general, however-, the 
young are nursed with particular attention 
and affection, and the accommodation of 
the parent to the sportive propensities and 
varying gambols of the kitten, constitutes 
to the humane and even the philosophic mind 
an interesting spectacle. With respect to 
human beings, even those which have long 
protected and befriended it, the cat appears 
little susceptible of kind attaclrment on the 
change of habitations, quitting the family 
with which it had always lived, and return- 
ing to apartments to which, indeed, it had 
been long used, but where it could recog- 
nize no human friend. In this respect its 
manners exhibit a most disadvantageous 
contrast to those of the dog, which are in 
the highest degree social, affectionate, and 
grateful. The cat, however, often lives in 
habits of friendly intercourse with various 
animals in a state of similar domestication 
with itself, and to which in a state of nature 
it feels an almost unconquerable hostility. 
A French lady, of some eminence, by per- 
severing attention and discipline, at length 
succeeded in accomplishing the extraordi- 
nary exploit of habituating her dog and cat, 
her bird and mouse, to take their food from 
the same plate. Cats are, though in general, 
by no means profound sleepers; often, and 
particularly in the depth of winter and on 
the approach of snow, can be roused from 
their sleep only with extreme difficulty ; 
and will, on these occasions, exhale a fra- 
grance similar to that of cloves. On rub- 
bing the backs of these animals the electric 
spark is immediately felt, and the Leyden 
vial may, in frosty weather, be charged 
from this source by means of a connecting 
wive, and a glass-footed stool. Those who 
are pleased with contemplating the opera- 
tiens of animated surprise or curiosity, in 
any of the productions of nature, will be not 
a little entertained by the experiment of 
placing before a young cat, for tlxe first 
time, a looking-glass : its delight at the 
figure thus exhibited is soon allayed by that 
impossibility of touching it which it finds to 
all its attempts : it at length looks behind 
the glass, and with great suddenness and 
vivacity shifts its examination both forwards 
and backwards, till at last it appears to ob- 
serve the correspondence between the re- 
flections on the mirror and the movements 
of its own foot gliding in various directions 
over the surface, and seems to have deve- 
loped the mysterv originally so perplexing. 
VOL. III. 
F. lynx, or the lynx, is remarkable for its 
ears being long and erect, and tufted at the 
end with long black hairs. The skin of the 
male is more spotted than that of the female. 
In America and the North of Europe 
these animals are to be found in great 
abundance. They subsist by hunting squir- 
rels, ermines, weasels, and other vermin ; 
which they will pursue to the very tops of 
extremely high trees. They conceal them- 
selves often among the branches, and watch 
with minute observation the approach of 
hares, deer, and other animals, which they 
seize with astonishing agility, and after hav- 
ing drank their blood reject the carcases 
almost entirely; devouring often, of a whole 
sheep, little more than the brain and liver. 
When attacked by a dog this animal places 
itself on its back, and seizing the throat 
of its adversary often actually suffocates it, 
or obliges it at least to retire from the con- 
flict. The sight of the lynx is proverbially 
acute ; its howling greatly resembles that of 
a wolf; in confinement it appears restless, 
malignant, and untameable, almost con- 
stantly uttering a snarling scream. The fur 
of these animals is an important article of 
commerce. The farther north they are 
taken the whiter and more valuable they 
are ; and the winter furs are prefer able to 
the summer ones. The length of a Russian 
lynx, from nose to tail, is four feet six 
inches. The lynx of the ancients appears 
to have been the creature of imagination. 
See Mammalia, Plate XIV. fig. 4. 
From the lion to the common cat, through 
all the intermediate species of this abun- 
dant genus, a strong resemblance exists in 
form, internal structure, and habits; the 
shortness of the intestines, the sharpness 
and number of the teeth, the structure of the 
feet and claws are tire same in all ; they all 
feed on flesh, which they rather tear than 
masticate ; they eat with slowness, and 
during the repast growl almost perpetually, 
as if apprehensive of its being intercepted 
from them ; they all seize upon their prey 
by crafty approach and stealthy stratagem, 
rather than by open and intrepid attack. 
These are the animals from which man has 
most to apprehend, and which have hither- 
to, in every age, more or less, carried on 
hostilities against him. The power of some 
creatures is greater, but their tempers are 
less ferocious, and they ' exercise their 
strength not in acts of aggression but only 
in those of retaliation; and others, while 
they are inexpressibly more numerous, are, 
at the same time, destitute of any formid- 
K 
