CAT. 
S3 3 
count for it, from the nature of the food in the 
two animals ; the one Hying upon vegetables, 
which require a longer, and a more tedious pre- 
paration, before they can become a part of its 
body ; the other living upon flesh, which requires 
very little alteration, in order to be assimilated 
into the substance of the creature that feeds upon 
it. The one, therefore, wanted a long canal for 
properly digesting and straining its food ; the 
other but a short one, as the food is already pre- 
pared to pass the usual secretions ; however, a 
difficulty still remains behind ; the intestines of 
the wild cat are, by one-third, shorter than those 
of the tame. How can we account for this ? If 
we say that the domestic cat, living upon more 
nourishing and more plentiful provision, has its 
intestines enlarged to the quantity with which it 
is supplied, we shall find this observation con- 
tradicted in the wild boar and the wolf, whose 
intestines are as long as those of the hog or the 
dog, though they lead a savage life, and, like Hie 
wild cat, are fed by precarious subsistence. The 
shortness, therefore, of the wild cat’s intestines, 
is still unaccounted for ; and most naturalists 
consider the difficulty as inextricable. We must 
leave it, therefore, as one of those difficulties 
which future ^observation or accident are most 
likely to discover. 
The domestic cat, although it does not exhibit the 
affectionate attachment of the dog, yet is not des- 
titute of either gentleness or gratitude. A very 
singular example of this is recorded in Mr. Pen- 
nant’s Account of London. Henry Wriothsly, 
earl of Southampton, the friend and companion of 
the earl of Essex in his fatal insurrection, having 
been some time confined in the tower, was one day 
surprised by a visit from his fa vorite cat ; which* 
