FAMILY. 
FELIDAE. 
Head short, broad. Feet digitigrade; five toes before, four behind. Claws retractile into a sheath. Molars, (with pre¬ 
molars,) or |=|. Incisors, -g. Posterior upper molar, (true molar,) very small. 
By the retractile and very sharp and compressed claws, the cats are very readily distinguished 
from the closely allied members of the order Carnivora. Here, too, the dentition is reduced to 
its simplest elements among all those mammals having incisors, canines, and molars. The 
entire number of mature teeth consists of 28 or 30, namely, incisors canines premolars, 
molars The true or permanent molars are only one in each jaw, on either side, reduced 
to the minimum of development; usually with hut one fang. 
As in the Canidae, the hind feet have but four toes ; the anterior, five. The soles are densely 
hairy, with naked pads under each toe and on the hall of the foot. The inner toe of the fore 
foot is placed nearly at the same level with the others, and provided with a strong claw. The 
tongue is covered with sharp prickles, pointing backwards, which, in the larger species, can 
readily draw blood by scratching off the skin. 
The canines of the Felidae are very well developed, and more or less curved ; they are usually 
slightly compressed, very much so in the extinct Machairodus ; there is an anterior and poste¬ 
rior ridge serrulated in Machairodus. In most living cats, the upper canines exhibit each two 
longitudinal furrows on the outer side, sometimes obliterated by age. The posterior molar of 
the upper jaw, the only permanent molar, is very small, (not visible from outside,) and its crown 
is transverse ; anterior to this is the large sectorial tooth, a premolar, with a smaller tricuspid 
one in front of it. The first premolar is very small, and wanting altogether in Lynx . In the 
lower jaw the posterior (true) molar is sectorial with two smaller compressed premolars anterior 
to it. The second upper, and first and second lower premolars, are trilobed, the central lobe 
highest, the lateral sometimes with accessory notches or lobes. 
In osteological characteristics, and especially in the structure of the skull and teeth, the 
Felidae exhibit a close relationship. In America, however, there may be distinguished two 
primary living forms, one with compact fur, long tail, high shoulders, and with four molars 
above ; the other with loose, sometimes very long fur, without the brilliancy of the other 
division ; short truncated tail, pencilled ears, high hind legs, and but three upper molars on 
each side. The former embraces the typical cats of the restricted genus Felis —the latter the 
species of Lynx. The extinct genus Machairodus , and perhaps another, is found among the 
remains of the Manvaises Terres. 
