EXCERPTS FROM "THE CAT" BY SIR GEORGE MIVART

[I am only reproducing the sections relating to general matters and not to the dissection and study of feline anatomy.]

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

St. George Jackson Mivart (30 November 1827 - 1 April 1900) was born in London to Evangelical Christians. He converted to Catholicism in 1845 which meant he was excluded from the then Anglicans-only Oxford University. He studied medicine and biological sciences and became a fellow of the Zoological Society of London. He originally believed in natural selection, but later became a fierce critic of the theory. He tried to reconcile the theory of evolution with Catholic teaching. He believed in the existence of a soul and a creator deity and insisted that evolution was not incompatible with the existence of God. He met Huxley in 1859 and attended his lectures, but Huxley's anti-Catholic stance led to Mivart's alternative theories in "On the Genesis of Species." In essence, he accepted evolution, but denied it applied to human intellect. Darwin included a point-by-point refutation of Mivart's criticisms of natural selection in the sixth edition of "Origin of Species." Ultimately, one of Mivart's attacks meant both Huxley and Darwin broke off connections with him. Mivart also fell out with the Catholic church when he argued that the punishments of Hell were not eternal and that it was even possible to be happy in Hell! It was his theological writings, not his evolutionist writings, that went on their banned list. Mivart then wrote some deliberately provocative articles challenging the authority of the church and stating the Bible and science were incompatible. As a result, when he died of diabetes, he was not allowed to be buried in consecrated ground. His friends argued that his serious diabetes had made him unstable, and 4 years later his remains were transferred to St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green.

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.

1. WHETHER it is the Cat or the Dog which is the most domestic of all our domestic animals, is a question which may be disputed. The greater intelligence and affection of the dog, cause men generally to prefer it to its rival. As the eager partner of our sports, or the faithful guardian of house or homestead, it is of especial value. Yet the cat is so largely self-supporting and so useful an ally against unwelcome intruders, that it is the inmate of a multitude of humble homes wherein the dog has no place. The cat also is favoured by that half of the human race which is the more concerned with domestic cares; for it is a home-loving animal and one exceptionally clean and orderly in its habits, and thus naturally commends itself to the good will of the thrifty housewife.

Moreover, though it is generally much less demonstrative in its affection than is the dog, yet cats differ as men do, and some individuals manifest strong feelings of regard for one or other members of the family wherein they make their homes.

Cats are even sometimes made use of to obtain food for their owners, the latter availing themselves of the habit which cats have of bringing home prey. [* Thus, several rabbits will sometimes be brought home by a cat in a single day.]

The Domestic Cat is an animal so common and familiar that its utility is sometimes apt to be lost sight of. To realise its usefulness we must imagine ourselves in a land where no such an animal is known, but where the annoying creatures upon which it preys shall have multiplied with that rapidity natural to them. The familiar tale of Whittington may serve to illustrate what would be the effect of its introduction into such a land. It has been calculated that a single cat may devour twenty mice in one day; but this of course is by no means the limit of its powers of destruction. Its effect in putting to flight the creatures it pursues, is again far in excess of its destructive energy. Were every cat in England simultaneously destroyed, the loss through the entailed increase of vermin would be enormous.

2. But however much this animal may deserve our esteem, or win our admiration, by its shapely form and graceful movements, it certainly has very special claims on the attention of lovers of biological science. For in the first place its organization, considered absolutely in itself, is one of singular perfection, and the adaptation of means to ends which it displays is truly admirable. If, however, we compare its organization with that of other animals, we shall by so doing not only gain a better appreciation of its structural perfections, but also become acquainted with a variety of relations conveying useful lessons in anatomy, psychology, [*The word Psychology is here used in its wide and (as the author believes ) in its proper sense as embracing Physiology within its scope ] and zoology, and others referring to the past, the present, and even the future history of this planet.

3. The "Common" (domestic) Cat of our country, and indeed of the continent also, is not the "Common Cat" of zoology. The latter is of course the originally native cat-or wild cat. domestic and the wild cat may, however, for our present purpose, be considered together, and, thus considered, the events of the last two thousand years have strangely altered the distribution of the cats of this country.

That men dwell in cities, instead of in woods, is one effect of civilization. A similar but greater change has been produced with English cats by the same cause. For when Julius Caesar landed here our forests were plentifully supplied with cats, while probably not a single mouser existed in any British town or village. word "cat" appears to be of Roman origin, being probably derived from the Latin word catus, which word also seems to have been at the same time the root of the Greek karra, the old German name chazza, and of the softened French form of the word, chat. The original derivation of the name does not, however, appear to have been as yet ascertained. It occurs in Anglo-Saxon writings with the spelling Catt.

It might be supposed that our present domestic cat is simply our own ancient wild cat tamed; but had it been so and therefore been easily procurable, it would not have been so highly valued as it was even so late as a thousand years after the Roman invasion. though the domestic cat was thus rare, and therefore precious, the wild cat continued to be common in England during the Middle Ages. This is proved by the fact that its fur was then commonly used for trimming dresses.

A canon, enacted in the year 1127, forbad abbess or nun to use more costly fur than that of lambs or cats, and the cat was an object of chase in royal forests, as is shown by a license to hunt it of the date 1239, and by a similar charter given by Richard the Second to the Abbot of Peterborough.

The Wild Cat is now (thanks to the destruction of our forests, the introduction of fire-arms, and the over-zeal of game-keepers,) extinct in England, and perhaps in Wales also, though it lived here till within fifty, and in Wales till within twenty years ago. In Ireland it seems never to have existed, and the stories we read of Irish wild cats probably refer to the progeny of domestic cats run wild. This is the opinion of Dr Hamilton, F.Z.S., who has paid great attention to this subject, and carefully collected and investigated the evidence as to the existence of the wild cat in Ireland. In Scotland it is still far from uncommon, and is especially frequent in Inverness, Ross-shire, Sutherland, and on the west coast of the Highlands, where the recent increase of rabbits (animals so useful to it as good food,) seems to have occasioned some increase in the number of wild cats. These animals exist also in Skye, but not in the Western Isles.

On the continent the wild cat is found in Southern Russia, and the adjacent parts of Asia, Turkey, Greece, Hungary, Germany, Dalmatia, Spain, Switzerland, and, though now very rare, France. [One wild cat at the least has been killed in France between 1815 and 1830.] It does not appear to exist in Norway or Sweden.

4. Our Domestic Cat seems to have come to us (like our other domestic animals) from the East, and is probably a descendant of the old domestic cat of Egypt, which, as the granary of the ancient world, might well have been the country in which the animal was originally tamed. In the Egyptian Gallery of the British Museum is an excellent painting of a tabby cat, which seems to be aiding a man who is capturing birds. It is mentioned in inscriptions as early as 1684 B.C., and it was certainly domesticated in Egypt thirteen hundred years before Christ. The earliest known representation of the cat as a domestic animal and pet, is at Leyden in a tablet of the 18th or 19th dynasty, wherein it appears seated under a chair. In Egypt, it was an object of religious worship and the venerated inmate of certain temples. The goddess Pasht or Bubastis, the Goddess of Cats, was, under the Roman Empire, represented with a cat's head. A temple at Beni-Hassan, dedicated to her, is as old as Thothmes IV. of the 18th dynasty, 1500 B.C.

[ Dr. Birch has kindly informed me that the earliest representation of the cat, with which he is acquainted, the date of which is certain, is on tomb No. 170 of the Berlin Museum, apparently of about 1600 B.C.; but that it also figures on a tablet which from its style appears to be two hundred years older--as part of the name of a woman, "Main or cat. It also appears in hunting scenes of the 18th dynasty, and in rituals written under that dynasty, but probably repetitions of a much earlier text. It is mentioned in the 17th chapter of the Ritual, and the coffins of the 11th dynasty are inscribed with that chapter, which, according to Lepsius, would carry us back to about 2400 B. C. In a copy of the Ritual of B. C. 1500, its 33rd chapter has the text, "thou hast eaten the rats hateful to Ra (the Sun), and thou feedest on the bones of the impure cat." In Egypt an animal, though sacred in one city, might be regarded as impure in another city.]

Behind that temple are pits containing a multitude of cat mummies. The cat was an emblem of the sun to the Egyptians. Its eyes were supposed to vary in appearance with the course of that luminary, and likewise to undergo a change each lunar month, on which account the animal was also sacred to the moon. [Mr. J. Jenner Weir has found that the eyes of cats will really change colour.] Herodotus (ii. 66) recounts instances of the strangely exaggerated regard felt for it by the dwellers on the Nile. He tells us that when a cat dies a natural death in a house, the Egyptians shave off their eyebrows, and that when a fire occurs they are more anxious to save their cats than to extinguish the conflagration.

From Egypt it must have been introduced into Greece, and the intimate knowledge of Egyptian customs which became common in Rome from the time of Julius and Augustus must have brought into it amongst many other animals a knowledge of the domestic cat. A fresco painting of such a cat was discovered in Pompeii. [See Plate 81 of Raccolta de piu belli Dipinti, from the collections in the Royal Museum (Napoli, 1854). The cat is represented as seizing a thrush, and is very well drawn] It was not a domestic animal amongst the Hebrews, though it was known in India two thousand years ago.

It has been suggested by Professor Rolleston, that the domestic animal of the Greeks (used by them for the purposes for which we now use the cat) was the white-breasted marten. [See Cambridge Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, 1868, vol. ii. pp. 47 and 437.] But however this may be, there can be no question as to the cat having been domesticated in Europe before the Christian era. There are signs that it was domesticated amongst the people of the Bronze period, and the supposition that it was first introduced into Western Europe by the Crusaders, is of course an altogether erroneous one. They may however have introduced a distinct race, for if it be true that our domestic cats have mainly descended from the Egyptian cat, it does not follow but that blood from other sources may have mingled with that of the Egyptian breed.

Pope Gregory the Great, who lived towards the end of the sixth century, is said to have had a pet cat, and cats were often inmates of nunneries in the Middle Ages. The great value set upon the cat at this period is shown by the laws which in Wales, Switzerland, and Saxony, and other European countries, imposed a heavy fine on cat-killers. As compensation, a payment was required of as much wheat as was needed to form a pile sufficient to cover over the body of the animal to the tip of its tail, the tail being held up vertically, with the cat's muzzle resting on the ground.

The WILD CAT (Felis catus) differs from our ordinary domestio cat in that it is more strongly built and larger, with a stouter head and shorter and thicker tail, which is not tapering but of about the same thickness throughout. Its whiskers also are more abundant, and the soles of its feet are, in the males, deep black. Its body is of a yellowish-grey colour, with a dark longitudinal mark along the back, and with numerous darkish stripes descending more or less vertically down the sides, and marking transversely the limbs. Its tail is ringed with black, and is black at the end. It is thus marked like the domestic variety called "tabby" One killed near Cawdor Castle measured 3 feet 9 inches from its nose to the end of its tail. [Mr. Harrison Weir tells me that the largest domestic cat he has seen weighed twenty-three pounds.] Its savage disposition is very early shown, even the young kittens spitting vigorously at anyone who approaches them. The female makes her nest in hollow trees and the clefts of rocks, and sometimes uses the deserted nest of some large bird.

5. The EGYPTIAN CAT (Felis maniculata) is a native of northern Africa, and was the parent of the cat tamed by the Egyptians, and - if what has been here urged is correct - also of our own domestic cat. possibly with an admixture of other blood. The Egyptian cat is said to be about one-third smaller than the European wild cat. It is of a yellowish colour, somewhat darker on the back and whitish on the belly. There are some obscure stripes on the body, which become more distinct on the limbs. The tail is more or less ringed towards its termination, which is black.

6. Although the differences between the various breeds of the DOMESTIC CAT are small indeed compared with those between different races of dogs, still very distinct varieties exist, but their distinctions repose mainly on the colour and the length or quality of the fur, and not on differences of form, such as those we find existing between the Greyhound and the Pug, the Spaniel and the Mastiff.

The colours of cats may be divided into black, white, tabby, sandy tortoiseshell, dun, grey, and what is termed "blue." There are also cats in which these various colours are more or less mixed. The grey cat is very rare. It is, in fact, a tabby, without the black stripes, except two large stripes over the fore-legs-marks present in most spotted or striped cat-like animals of whatever species. Black cats are remarkable for the clear yellow colour of their eyes. Their coat is rarely entirely black, for there are generally a few white hairs on the throat at the least. When young they show more or less perceptible striped markings. White cats may have blue eyes, or eyes of the ordinary colour that is, an obscure yellow with a tinge of green. Those with blue eyes are generally deaf, but they are not always so. It often happens that the eyes of a white cat are not alike in colour; thus one may be blue and the other yellow.

The late Mr. John Stuart Mill told my friend Mr. John Jenner Weir, F.L.S., that he had at Avignon a breed of cats the eyes of which distinctly changed colour when the animals were excited. [This gentleman (J.J. Weir) has acted as judge at numerous cat shows, and I am indebted to him for very kindly furnishing me with his notes respecting varieties of the domestic cat.]

The tabby cat may be the result of the occasional crossing or the domestic cat by the wild cat. That they do breed together occasionally is certain, and indeed races of domestic cats of different parts of the world will breed with wild cats of the same region. [This has been ascertained by Mr. A. H. Wills, who succeeded in getting the wild and domestic cat to breed together in confinement. (See Land and Water, Sept. 4th, 1875; and the Zoologist for 1873, p. 3574; and for 1876, pp. 4867 and 5038.) Mr. S. C. B. Pusey has also successfully crossed the wild and domestic cat, and several kittens resulting from this cross have been sent to the gardens of the Zoological Society of London. This interbreeding is remarkable, seeing that the period of gestation of the wild cat is sixty-eight days, or twelve days longer than that of the domestic animal.]

The tortoiseshell cat should be fawn-coloured, mottled with black. Cats thus marked are almost invariably females, while sandy-coloured cats are almost always males. It appears that the sandy tom cat is the male of the breed of which the tortoiseshell is the female - the litters being almost invariably so divided. This fact is very interesting, because the sexes of cat-like animals are similarly coloured. [The only exception I have met with is the Yaguarondi of America, in which species the female is said to be of a lighter and brighter colour than the male.] Sometimes, however, sandy cats are female, and there is at least one good instance of a true tortoiseshell tom cat. Such cats, indeed, have not unfrequently been offered, by letter, to the Secretary of the Zoological Society, at very extravagant prices. Probably many of them were male cats of three colours - such as white and tortoiseshell and grey-white and sandy - but not the true tortoiseshell.

The Royal Siamese cat is of one uniform fawn colour, which may be of a very dark tinge. There is a tendency to a darker colour about the muzzle-as in pug dogs. It has also remarkable blue eyes, and sometimes, at the least, two bald spots on the forehead. It has a small head.

The blue or Carthusian cat is a breed with long, soft hair of a uniform, dark greyish-blue tint, with black lips, and black soles to the paws.

The Angora, or Persian cat, is remarkable for its great size, and for the length and delicacy of its hair, especially of the belly and throat. Most commonly its coat is of a uniform white, yellowish or greyish colour, while the soles of its paws and its lips are often flesh-coloured. Its temperament is said to be sometimes exceptionally lethargic; but this is certainly not always the case, and may be due to excessive petting for generations. This breed is believed by some naturalists to be descended from an Asiatic wild cat, with a shorter tail than that of the Egyptian cat. [Pallas says that cats like the Angora cat are brought to Siberia from China. Zoographia Russo-Asiatica, vol. i. p. 28, note 3.] It is commonly repeated in works on Natural History that there is in China a breed of cats with pendent ears; but the Père David regards the assertion as an absurd fable. He has repeatedly sought to find such animals, but has never been able to see any, or to learn that they existed. [Pere David - The well-known Lazarist missionary and naturalist, who has made so many interesting discoveries in China and Thibet.]

In Pegu, Siam, and Burmah, there is a race of cats [See J. Crawford's Descriptive Dictionary of the Indian Islands, p. 255] - the Malay Cat - with tails only of half the ordinary length, and often contorted in a sort of knot, so that it cannot be straightened. [Its contortion is due to deformity of the bones of the tail.] The true short-tailed or tailless cat-the Manx Cat-has also the hind-legs relatively long. Mr. J. J. Weir tells me he has seen one which had the forelegs so short as to be useless in walking, and the animal sat up like a kangaroo. [In the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons there is preserved the skeleton of a cat, formerly belonging to the late Mr. Doubleday, the entomologist. This cat was born without any forelimbs, yet could jump so well as to be able to jump up on a table. All the bones of the fore-limb are entirely wanting, save the shoulder-blades.]

Tailless cats are not, however, the only cats to be found in the Isle of Man; some cats there have tails ten inches long.a fact probably due to the introduction of long-tailed cats from England, Scotland, or Ireland. [Mr. Bartlett assures me he has measured cats' tails in the island, and found all lengths up to ten inches.] In cross-breeding the progeny seem generally to resemble the father as to length of the tail. [See Mr. Orton's Physiology of Breeding, 1855, p. 9.] A tailless breed of cats also exists in the Crimea. The Mombas Cat of the coast of Africa is said to be covered with short stiff hair instead of the ordinary sort of hair. [See Captain Owen's Narrative of Voyages, vol. ii. p. 180.] The Paraguay Cat is but a fourth of the average size of our domestic cats, has a long body with short, shiny, scanty hair, which lies close, especially on the tail. [See Reugger's Säugethiere van Paraguay, 1830, p. 212.] In South America there is said to be also a race of cats which have ceased to give forth cries like those by which our own cats are wont to give expression to their emotional sensibility. It is to be wished that this last breed should be introduced into this country. Yet the breed would probably not persist, for the reason which seems to limit the formation of new races; for the wandering nocturnal habits of the species defeat most attempts at selection in breeding.

That variations which might serve for the formation of new breeds must be every now and then forthcoming, is indicated by such facts as the following one, for a knowledge of which I am indebted to Mr. John Birkett.

A female cat had its tail so injured by the passage of a cart-wheel over it, that her master judged it best to have her tail cut off near the root. Since then she has had two litters of kittens, and in each litter one or more of the kittens had stumps of tails, while their brothers and sisters had tails of the usual length. Mr. Birkett himself saw one of the stump-tailed kittens. It is of course possible that the mother had some trace of Manx blood in her, but it is not likely, and the occurrence of the phenomenon just after, and only after, the accident and amputation, seems to indicate that in this perpetuation of an accidentally deformed condition, we have an example of the origination of a new variety.

The direct influence of external circumstances upon different kinds of cats is worthy of note. Thus Captain Owen, R.N., (already referred to), tells of a cat which, having been taken to Mombas, "underwent a complete metamorphosis," and "parted with its sandy-coloured fur" after only eight weeks' residence there. In Paraguay, again, cats seem unable to become thoroughly feral as they do in other places, and as other European animals do in Paraguay.

7. The domestic cat begins to be ready to reproduce by the end of the first year of her life, and she is prolific to her ninth. Her young are carried for fifty-five or fifty-six days, and she generally has five or six young at a birth, and sometimes eight or nine. In a wild state the cat brings forth at least twice a year, but the domestic cat will do so three or four times annually. The wild cat has only four or five young in a litter. The length of life which cats attain varies with individuals, and is a point difficult satisfactorily to ascertain. It seems probable that about twelve years is its ordinary limit, but in some cases the age of eighteen years may certainly be attained under favourable circumstances.

Though small quadrupeds and birds are their natural prey, cats are singularly fond of food which in a wild state they can never or but seldom attain, namely, cow's milk, and also fish. In spite also of the relative obtuseness of their sense of smell, they are said to show a marked preference for certain odours, a taste in harmony with that luxurious and ease-loving nature with which they are endowed.

8. To know all about the history and habits of the cat, together with the peculiarities of form and colour of its various breeds, both wild and domestic, is not to have a scientific knowledge of the cat. To know the animal scientifically, we must be able to answer correctly the question "What is a cat?" But we cannot so answer this question unless we know both the main facts as to the animal considered in itself absolutely, and the various leading relations in which it stands to all other creatures.

"We understand a particular kind of animated being, when looking inwards we see how its parts constitute a system, and again looking outwards and around, how this system stands with regard to other types of organised existence." [Essays by James Martineau, Second Series, p. 417]

No object can be understood by itself. We comprehend anything the better, the more we know of other things distinct from but related to it.

The complete natural history of any animal, in the full and proper sense of the term, is its Biology. It is so because, though the study of any animal is of course mainly its zoology, yet fully to understand certain of its powers, and the conditions necessary for its existence, a side glance should be cast at the vegetable world also; and Biology is the term which denotes the science of all living creatures - both animals and plants - and therefore embraces within it both zoology and botany. Moreover, Biology not only includes these two subordinate sciences, but also the various inquiries which refer to the relations which exist between their respective subject-matters.

Now, in the first place, the study of the cat, as of every living creature, may be followed up along two different lines of inquiry. One of these refers to the structure of its body, the other refers to the actions which its body performs; in other words, the animal may be considered statically or dynamically.

Before, however, considering these two kinds of inquiry, and seeing what subordinate inquiries they respectively include, it may be well to note that the cat's body is obviously a complex structure, consisting of distinct parts, which are also obviously put to different uses, and reciprocally minister one to another. Thus, for example, the limbs may more or less rapidly propel the body after prey which the eyes guide the paws to grasp and bring to the teeth and jaws by which it is divided to pass into the interior of the trunk, to be there converted by the digestive organs into nutriment, by which the limbs, the eyes, the paws, the teeth and jaws, stomach, intestine, &c., are themselves supported and maintained in healthy working condition. This animal's body, then, is a complex whole in which all the parts are reciprocally ends and means; and such is the definition of "an ORGANISM," wide as is the difference in complexity between organisms, both animal and vegetable, of very different kinds.

9. The organism with which we are occupied, the cat's body, may, as has been already said, be considered as to its structure and as to its actions. As to its structure it may be considered with respect to its size, shape, consistency, the number, form, and relative position of its various parts, and such study is called Anatomy. The inquiry as to its form is called Morphology, and this inquiry may be directed to its larger parts and grosser structures or to its minute structure.

The various parts of the cat's body, such as its tongue, eyes, stomach, kidneys, &c., are termed "organs," and these are grouped together into different "sets" or "systems." Thus, e.g., we have the alimentary system of organs made up of the mouth, oesophagus, stomach, and intestine - or alimentary tube - with the various organs, liver, pancreas, &c., which are directly connected with that tube. But every organ is made up of several different animal substances, variously blended, and differing in their minute or microscopic characters. The study of such minute structure - such microscopic anatomy - is termed Histology. Each of the various substances thus minutely differing, and which build up the organs of the body, is called a tissue, and Histology is, therefore, the science of the tissues of which every living creature may be composed. Histology enables us to understand the structure and nature of the ultimate substance or parenchyma of the body, as far as our powers of observation at present extend; but those powers are very imperfect, and are very far from enabling us really to understand the absolutely ultimate composition of the body.

Another science which concerns the structure of the body is Comparative Anatomy. By it the structure of the whole body or of any part of the body is compared with the bodies or corresponding parts of the bodies of other creatures. The comparative anatomy of animals is sometimes called Zootomy. The above inquiries all refer to the number, shape, arrangement, connexion and relative position of parts (whether large or minute), and to the resemblances and differences between different living creatures thus regarded.

The inquiries which constitute the next set of Biological sciences, refer to the actions which the cat's body performs. Obviously the animal moves, takes food, and, if young, increases in size. The slightest observation convinces us that it has senses, feelings, and emotions, more or less similar to our own. If emaciated by starvation we see that it can by food regain its former bulk, and we may observe that trifling wounds or injuries may be repaired. Others of its actions normally result in the production of a new individual - another generation. In short the animal lives. These activities are, as we all know, shared by other animals, and some of them by plants also, which grow and repair certain injuries - replacing lost parts - and reproduce their kind.

10. The term usually employed to denote the study of the bodily activities, or functions generally, is PHYSIOLOGY. This study is made up of various subordinate inquiries. We may consider the functions of each tissue, of each organ, and of each system of organs. Thus we have, e.g., the study of the actions of the system of organs which nourish and support the body: i.e., the study of the function of sustentation. We have again the study of that system of organs which serves to continue the race, i.e., the study of the function of reproduction. We shall hereafter see that the former function is performed by various organs destined respectively to receive and digest food, to distribute about the body the nutritious matter obtained from it, to breathe and to form or secrete certain products. These functions, therefore, are those of (1) alimentation, (2) circulation, (3) respiration, and (4) secretion.

But a creature, such as our type the cat, not only lives and reproduces, it is also active, and executes a great number of apparently voluntary and other actions, and has a power of experiencing a variety of sensations. The functions then of (1) motion, and (2) sensation, form other subjects of physiological inquiry. The last two functions are called the animal functions. [Because sensation does not exist in any plant, while locomotion and all conspicuous powers of motion are special animal endowments.] The functions which minister to sustentation and reproduction, as they are found in all living creatures, plants as well as animals, are called the vegetative, or vegetal, functions.

Yet another and a somewhat peculiar study, is the study of development. It is a study at once morphological and physiological. For it is the study of the changes which the animal passes through in proceeding from its first condition, as a germ, to its adult stage of existence. It is, therefore, a study of form and a study of an active process both together. It is also desirable not only to note the function of each organ and set of organs, but also to consider the activity of the animal as a whole - the physiology of the individual or Psychology.

11. But we shall be quite unable to answer the question, What is a cat? if we do not learn the relations in which it stands to other living creatures - its position in the general scheme of things: in other words, the cat's place in nature. We must therefore compare the cat with all other living creatures; but especially with those which resemble it the more nearly. But to do this we must first understand more or less what the general scheme of organic nature is, that is to say, we must learn something of the arrangement and classification of living beings, i.e., of the science of Taxonomy.

12. Every animal and plant (and therefore, the cat and the cat tribe) has certain definite relations to space and time. Its geographical distribution and its past history, as shown by fossil remains, also form indispensable matters of inquiry, and respectively pertain to the sciences of Organic Geography and Paleontology. But every living creature has also relations with other living creatures, which may tend to destroy it or indirectly to aid it, and the various physical forces and conditions exercise their several influences upon it. The study of all these complex relations to time, space, physical forces, other organisms, and to surrounding conditions generally, constitutes the science of Hexicology. [(Greek chars) - habit, state, or condition. process of generation from other animals.]

13. But there is yet one more inquiry, without which any modern work on zoology would be quite incomplete, and that is a genealogical investigation, the prosecution of which pertains to the science of Phylogeny. This science (assuming the truth of the doctrine of evolution) investigates the evidence as to the various ancestral forms through which any now existing organism has probably passed in its descent from the most remote organisms which can, with any degree of probability, be regarded as its ancestors. [The doctrine of evolution teaches that each existing kind of animal or plant was originally derived by a natural plant was originally derived by a natural process of generation from other animals or plants more or less different in kind from it.] We must then, finally, endeavour to gain what light we may as to the first origin of that form of life which has been chosen for study - in other words we must investigate the cat's probable pedigree.

14. It appears to the writer that the study of the cat's anatomy and physiology may be best pursued by considering the function of each organ and set of organs, together with their structure, and to treat of them in the following order: -

I. The skeleton, both external and internal.
II. The parts which act upon the skeleton to effect motion - the muscles.
III. The organs of alimentation.
IV. The organs of circulation.
V. The organs of respiration and secretion.
VI. The generative organs and reproduction.
VII. The nervous system and organs of sense..
VIII. The development of the body.
IX. Psychology.

The facts of structure and function having been disposed of, we may proceed to consider the various affinities of the cat to other animals, its relations to space and time, and the question of its origin.

15. Before, however, commencing the proposed description, it may be well to state briefly a few facts as to the chemical composition of the body. The body of the cat is chemically composed of four principal elements, namely, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon, with small quantities of other elements - sulphur, phosphorus, chlorine, fluorine, silicon, potassium, sodium, calcium, iron, and magnesium. These elements are united together so as to form water, carbonate of lime, chlorides of sodium and potassium, sulphates and carbonates of soda and potash, phosphates and carbonates of magnesia, fluoride of calcium, and ammonia, and they are ultimately united into very complex groups of elements, termed "organic" compounds, the study of which pertains to a special science called organic chemistry. These very complex chemical groups of elements are called the proximate elements of the body because they are the first component substances into which it can be dissolved when in course of being reduced to its ultimate elements. Such proximate elements are grouped in two classes:
1. Those called nitrogenous, because containing nitrogen, and
2, the non-nitrogenous, because destitute of that element.
Most of the component substances of the body, such, e.g., as the flesh and the blood, are composed of the first, or nitrogenous, proximate elements, of which the substance of the white of egg, called albumen, and that of jelly, called gelatine, form the types. Fats, on the contrary, are non-nitrogenous substances, and consist only of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, or if they contain other elements, nitrogen is not amongst them. The nitrogenous substances are also spoken of as proteid, because they have been supposed to be derived from an imaginary substance termed protein, consisting of oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon. They are also spoken of as forms of protoplasm. [A term proposed by Mohl to denote the soft interior of cells. Every living creature is at first entirely composed of this quaternary compound.] About four-sevenths of the weight of the animal's body is made up by water, of which it is, therefore, very largely composed, the brain containing about seventy per cent. of that fluid.

In saying that the body consists of different parts and substances, ‘and is made up of combinations of elements, all that is meant is that it can be more or less readily divided into such parts, and that it can be dissolved into such elements, just as water may be destroyed to give place to oxygen and hydrogen. Whilst living, however, the body really forms one continuous whole locally differentiated, that is, assuming different appearances and possessing different properties in different regions. Even the very blood is directly continuous with the other constituents of the body in all actively growing parts.

CHAPTER II. - THE CATS GENERAL FORM. - THE SKIN AND ITS APPENDAGES.

1. The cat's entire frame is divisible into head, neck, trunk, tail, and limbs, of which latter there are two pairs. Its body is everywhere more or less closely invested by a firm skin, nevertheless this is loosely attached in certain parts and so forms folds here and there, as e.g., between the trunk and the elbow and knee respectively. Its skin is almost entirely clothed with hair, which is generally of moderate length, often being longer on the belly and tail than elsewhere; but the length of the hair varies, as we have seen, according to the breed to which different cats may belong. It is, however, always short on the paws and face. The hairs are directed backwards from the head to the tail, and, for the most part, downwards on the limbs. There are long hairs inside each ear and sometimes on its tip, and about a dozen very long and strong hairs - the whiskers or vibrissae - are placed on each upper lip. There are also a few long hairs over each eye, or eyebrows, but there are no eyelashes. The end of the nose, the lips, and the skin of the fleshy pads beneath the paws, are naked.

The head is rounded, and the jaws are rather short. The eyes are large, and separated by a considerable interval. The ears become narrow as they ascend, and each stands with its deep concavity directed forwards and outwards. The neck is a little shorter and less voluminous than the head. The front limbs are shorter than the hind limbs, and consist each of an upper arm, a fore-arm, and a paw with five short toes. Each hind limb has a thigh, a leg, and a foot with four toes. The proportions of the body are such that both the elbow and knee are placed close to the trunk.

Certain symmetrical relations and contrasts between different parts of the cat's frame are evident on even a cursory examination of it. Thus there is an obvious contrast between its dorsal and its ventral aspect, and this contrast extends along each limb to the ends of the toes.

Again, there is a resemblance (and at the same time a contrast) between the right and left sides, which correspond with tolerable exactitude one to the other. This harmony, termed bilateral symmetry, though obvious externally, does not prevail in all the internal organs (viscera), which are more or less unsymmetrically disposed.

Thirdly, there is a resemblance and correspondence between parts placed successively, as, for example, between the arm and the leg, or between the fore and hind paws; although this resemblance is less obvious than it might be, owing to the different directions in which the knee and elbow are bent. Such a symmetry is termed serial, and is thus even externally visible; but it becomes much more evident when the animal's internal structure is examined. There we find many successive parts - like the ribs, or the pieces of the backbone - which obviously resemble each other very closely, and so are called by a common name. Such parts are placed one after another in a "series," and it is on this account that the symmetry of which they are examples is called serial symmetry.

[The remainder is detailed anatomy based on dissection and not reproduced here.]

CHAPTER XI. - THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE CAT.

1. The word "Psychology" has been so much used of late to denote mental states only, that most readers will probably deem that by the phrase "the psychology of the cat," the phenomena of the cat-mind - its feelings, imaginations, emotions, and instincts - are exclusively referred to. These indeed will all be treated of in this chapter, but " Psychology," according to its original conception, and according to the most rational signification which can be given to the term, has a very much wider meaning; for it denotes the study of all the activities, both simultaneous and successive, which any living creature may exhibit.

On account of the very peculiar nature of a certain number of these - namely, all those which may be classed as "feelings" in the widest sense of that word - it is practically impossible to study them as they exist in any animal without some reference to our own mental activities. The study of such activities as they take place in ourselves, may be followed up in three modes:-

(1.) By introspection, i.e., by the study of our own mental states, through our powers of reflection.
(2.) By the study of our fellow-men as they live and act (in health and in disease), drawing inferences from their words and gestures as to the similarity between their feelings, emotions and perceptions, and our own.
(3.) By examining facts of structure - anatomical conditions - in order to investigate the relations which may exist between different mental phenomena and corresponding (normal or pathological) bodily conditions.

Such of our activities - such phenomena - as we know and can know only by introspection, are called "subjective," and they are ministered to by the nervous system. That same system, however, also ministers, as we have seen, to many other activities of which introspection can give us no account, since they lie so deep that they are beyond its ken. Now it is these subjective phenomena, or, at the most, these together with the other activities to which the nervous system ministers, which are now ordinarily referred to by the term Psychology. Therefore it will be well, in studying the psychology of the cat, to begin with such of its activities as may seem most to resemble, and run parallel to, those human phenomena which are known to us by introspection, together with such others as may be most nearly allied to, or more or less inextricably mixed up with them.

2. We cannot of course, without becoming cats, perfectly understand the cat-mind. Yet common sense abundantly suffices to assure us that it really has certain affinities to our own. Indeed, the cat seems to be a much more intelligent animal than is often supposed. That it has very distinct feelings of pleasure or pain, and keen special senses, will probably be disputed by no one. Its sense of touch is very delicate; its eyes are highly organized, and can serve it almost in the dark, and its hearing is extremely acute. It is obvious also that external and internal sensations - more or less similar to those external and internal sensations of ours by which we instinctively move from place to place, judge of distance and direction, and perceive resistance and pressure - must be possessed by the cat also. Were it otherwise, trees could not be readily ascended in search of birds, leaps could not be accurately taken and mice caught, walls could not be ascended and descended by dexterous combinations of vigorous yet delicately adjusted springs and graplings, nor could small apertures be skilfully passed through in the admirable way in which all these complexly co-ordinated movements are effected by the animal in question. The ease and grace of motion in the cat, and its neat dexterity, are a common subject of praise. Who has not observed how cleverly a cat will avoid objects in its path - walking, perhaps, over a table set with glasses and ornaments in not very stable equilibrium, without over-setting any one of them. Every one knows also the great facility with which the cat so turns in falling as almost always to alight safely upon its feet. The animal's ordinary locomotion is a walk or a spring. It rarely runs, save when it is pursued or alarmed, and then it progresses by a series of bounds. When driven to it, it can swim, though it takes to the water, or even endures a mere wetting, with the greatest reluctance. Yet a cat has been seen voluntarily to enter a small stream several times, in order to rescue its kittens which had fallen into it.

But the cat has not only external and internal sensations: the facts just referred to cannot be explained without also granting that it has memory, imagination, a power of sensible perception, and of associating images in complex mental pictures which are more or less associated with pleasurable or painful feelings - for unless a cat perceived objects, it could not climb, jump, or pursue its prey. Nor can we doubt, when the presence of a mouse causes the impression of a patch of colour with a definite, familiar outline, on the retina of an experienced cat, that immediately there is a revival of faint antecedent similar impressions, with relations of various kinds, and pleasurable feelings (also faintly revived) of past catchings, killings, tastings, and eatings. Moreover, when we recollect how common it is for sleeping dogs to show by slight yelps that they are dreaming, we must surely admit that it is probable that cats can likewise dream. Nor is it impossible that when cosily sitting before a cheerful hearth, enjoying the heat they love so well, they may indulge in waking " day-dreams " also.

As to memory, every one knows how cats attach themselves to their homes, and how generally they recognize at least one or two of the habitual inmates of their dwelling place. Everyone knows also how a cat, accustomed to have a saucer of milk at tea-time, will habitually run into the drawing-room with the servant carrying the tea-tray. But even the preparatory clatter of the cups and plates downstairs is often enough to arouse its sensibilities, and put it on the qui vive. All this cannot be explained without allowing that the cat-mind can associate complex sets of sensuous impressions of different kinds - pleasurable or painful feelings being, as it were, the cement which binds together such complex associations. Once let a cat be much hurt by anyone, and it will soon show how it has associated a painful feeling with his image.

But cats can so associate sensations and the images of objects in various relations as to draw practical inferences. My friend, Mr. J. J. Weir, tells me of a cat which, having been chased by boys, ran towards a door, jumped up, put one paw through the handle, and with the other raised the latch, thus causing the door to open and enable it to escape. This action he saw several times repeated. Mr. Harrison Weir has also assured me that he has seen a cat unfasten a latch and then open the door it fastened, by pressing its feet against the door-post. He has also had a cat that knocked at a door with the knocker - these acts being untaught, and due only to the cat's spontaneous acts of cognition. I have also heard of a eat which habitually jumped down from a staircase in such a way as in its descent to press with its paws obliquely on the handle of a door and so open it. My friend Captain Noble, of Maresfield, informs me that he has himself known a cat which was in the habit of catching starlings by getting on to a cow's back and waiting till the cow happened to approach the birds, which little suspected what the approaching inoffensive beast bore crouching upon it. He assures me he has himself witnessed this elaborate trick, by means of which the cat managed to catch starlings which otherwise it could never have got near. Many cats will readily learn the signification of certain words, and will answer to their names and come when called. Very strange is the power which cats may show of finding their way home by routes which they have never before traversed. We cannot explain this (as it has been sought to explain the like power in dogs), by the power of smell being the predominate sense, so that a passed succession of smells can be re-traversed in reverse order, as a number of places seen in succession on a journey may be re-traversed in reverse order by ourselves. On the whole, it seems probable that the power in question may be due to a highly developed "sense of direction," like that which enables some men so much to excel others in finding their way about cities, or that which enables the inhabitants of Siberia to find their way through woods or over hummocky ice, and who, though constantly changing the direction they immediately pursue, yet keep their main direction unchanged.

In addition to all these cognitions of objects, and of the relations between them, cats possess stroug passions and, often at least, affectionate feelings of personal attachment.

The strength of their sexual feelings is notorious, and hardly less so is the devotion of the mother cat to her young. This latter emotion endures as long as she gives suck, and often, if a cat's second litter of kittens be destroyed while one of the previous litter remains, the latter will be again taken into favour, and, resuming its old mode of nourishment, have all the tenderness and affection shown to it which was manifested towards it at first. Cats will sometimes (as before mentioned) show great regard to individuals, and will manifest it by expressive gestures and slight, affectionate bites. These animals, then, have emotions, and they are able to express their feelings by external signs. Some observers have professed to detect more than half a hundred different expressions in a cat's face, but however much exaggeration there may be in such a statement, it is impossible to mistake their gestures of rage and fear at the sight of a strange and threatening dog - gestures well understood by the dog, and sufficient in most cases to keep him at a safe distance.

But it is not only by gestures that cats express their feelings. Besides their hideous nocturnal howls, cats give expression to their desires by gentle sounds. Almost everyone must have met with a cat which by mewing expressed its wish for a door to be opened, or which thus begged for a little milk. Cats then have a language of their own, made up of sounds and gestures.

Cats also have a will of their own, as all must know who have tried to retain on the lap, a cat minded to go elsewhere, or who have observed the determination with which they pursue the objects of their desires.

Manifestations of quite another kind from these quasi-intellectual ones are, however, also shown by cats. For they possess true instincts, and blindly follow innate promptings in pursuit of ends of which they can have no cognition whatever. This is shown by both parent and offspring at birth. The young spontaneously seek, find, and suck from, the mother's teats, while the young mother, also yielding to the spontaneous promptings of her organization, unhesitatingly gnaws thorough the monte cord of her first kitten.

[One of the to us unpleasing instincts of the cat is that which prompts it to play with the captured mouse instead of killing it, the object and meaning of which have been regarded as inexplicable. My friend Professor Paley has made the following suggestion as to the true utility and meaning of this instinct. He writes: - "When we observe carefully the motions of a kitten in playing with a ball or a cork, and a string, we shall see that they are suggested by the very same instincts which are exerted by a cat in playing with a disabled mouse. In both there is the withdrawal and the sudden pounce, and also the propelling the motionless object with the claw. It isa mistake to suppose that a kitten is actuated solely by a love of sportive play. Those who speculate on the laws which allow the existence of human and animal suffering, alike, profess themselves shocked at what they call the "unnecessary cruelty' of the cat. It is worth while therefore to inquire if there is not a reason that can be given for it in the economy of nature. For to do this is better than to view the circumstance as one of the proofs of imperfection in that economy. When we consider that the prey of the feline race is usually nimble, and that it can only be caught by a pounce upon it, we shall see that success in catching mice, birds, &c., must depend on constant practice. The creature escapes and is recaught again and again, and always by a pounce. To make real escape impossible, the victim is nipped or disabled, but generally so slightly that it may at first be taken from the cat very little injured. It is clear that each capture is thus made a lesson in catching. For everything depends on the sudden and noiseless dash."]

So also a kitten brought up without any experience of mice, will pursue with eagerness, "catch and kill the very first mouse which comes in its way. These instinctive acts are acts which spring necessarily from the structure of any organism, much as the actions of a steam-engine must follow their designed course when heat and water are duly supplied. Not, of course, that they are altogether such: for the steam-engine is a mere machine, while the animal is a living organism, endowed with much plasticity of body, and (as we have seen) even with a power of drawing practical inferences. Its instinct is, therefore, necessarily somewhat, as it were, plastic also, and capable, within limits of accommodating itself to changed circumstances.

Instinct, then, is a power of a kind distinct, on the one hand, from even such intelligence as cats have, and distinct from mere reflex action on the other.t Attempts have been made to deny its existence and distinctness, but they have only served to make them the more manifest.

[Mr. Douglas A. Spalding found kittens to be imbued with an instinctive horror of the dog before they were able to see it. He tells us: - "One day last month, after fondling my dog, I put my hand into a basket containing four blind kittens, three days old. The smell my hand had carried with it set them puffing and spitting in the most comical fashion." (Nature, October 7, 1875, p: 507.) ]

["Instinct, as instinct, is of course an abstraction existing in the mind, though it exists concretely enough in animal actions of a special kind. Instinct is, concretely, the animal organism energizing in certain ways." "It is a faculty of the feeling, imagining, organically-remembering "and "automatically-acting soul, which faculty is in most intimate connection with the organization of each species, so that upon the recurrence of certain sensations, external or internal, a definite series of actions is initiated, for the performance of which the organization has been specially developed. It is action like reflex action, save that it takes place in consequence of feelings and imaginations. It is so intimately related to an animal's structure, that if it were possible for us to construct any given kind of animal, we should necessarily give rise to the instinct in giving rise to the structure.' (Lessons from Nature, pp. 236 and 239.)

[Mr. Herbert Spencer and the late Mr. Lewes agree in entertaining very singular views as to instinct. According to Mr. Spencer, it is a higher development of reason, which it has replaced owing to the establishment of a more perfect adjustment of inner relations to outer relations than exists where mere reason is concerned. Mr. Lewes regards it as ‘lapsed intelligence," brought about by the "logic of feeling." That there is a logic of feeling - that there is a logic in even insentient nature - is not to be denied; but that logic is not the logic of the crystal, not of the brute, but of their Creator. Dr. Bastian, in his recent work (The Brain as an Organ of Mind, p. 221), also endeavours to show that instinct is not a special faculty. But all these writers avoid considering the real difficulties which oppose their views in either direction. Thus Mr. Spencer shirks all consideration of the phenomena which his hypothesis fails to explain - such as the instincts of the wasp Sphex and of the carpenter bee. Dr. Bastian does the same; contenting himself by gratuitously asserting as to ants and bees (l.c., p. 235): "There can be little doubt, that if our means of knowledge were greater than it is, we should be able to explain these and all other instincts by reference to the doctrines of ‘inherited acquisition' and ‘natural selection,' either simply or in combination." At the other end of the mental scale, all the highest phenomena are also simply ignored by all these writers alike. Nothing is said by one of them as to our apprehension of Being, truth, or goodness. The much to be lamented death of Mr. Lewes cut short his work abruptly, so that it may be, had he lived, he would have addressed himself to the problem; but it is strange that neither Mr. Spencer nor Dr. Bastian should have attempted to grapple with it. Without so doing, all their conclusions may be simply disregarded, as the phenomena they notice are all beside the main issue they profess to raise. As to instinct, Dr. Bastian seeks to explain it by reference to the evolution of contractile hearts, oviducts, and intestines. But does he mean to imply that these contractions were in their first origin deliberate and voluntary? Was the original "desire for food" a desire which a creature deliberately chose to have, or was it developed by "natural selection," those organisms that had no desire for food becoming extinct? But how could natural selection ever originate a desire for food? To what could it have been due but to an IMPLANTED IMPULSE; and if such an impulse must be acknowledged at all, why not acknowledge it with respect to instinct, the facts as to which so emphatically demand its recognition? ]

Much below instinct are those activities before referred to as due to reflex action, and which exist in the cat as well as in ourselves, but which cannot take place without an innate power of being impressed and affected by stimuli which are not felt.

Altogether then, THE CAT'S ACTIVE POWERS may be summed up as follows: -
1. Vegetative powers of growth and reproduction.
2. A power of locomotion and of motion of various parts of the body.
3. A power of being impressed by unfelt stimuli.
4. A power of responding to such impressions by appropriate movements - reflex action.
5. A power of responding to felt stimuli by simple actions, plainly involuntary - excito-motor action.
6. A power of blindly performing appropriate complex acts, by seemingly voluntary, actions in response to felt stimuli - instinct.
7. A power of experiencing pleasure and pain.
8. A power of experiencing vivid feelings from material objects - sensation.
9. A power of reproducing by mental images past feelings in a faint manner.
10. A power of associating such images with fresh sensations according to the different relations in which they have co-existed - sense perception.
11. A power of associating images in groups - imagination.
12. A power of agglutinating and combining imaginations and sense-perceptions in clusters, and clusters of clusters, so forming more and more complex imaginations - sensuous association.
13. A power of memory.
14. A power of so reviving complex imaginations, upon the occurrence of sensations and images, as to draw practical consequences - organic inference.
15. Powers leading to spontaneous impulsions in different directions through internal or external stimuli - appetites.
16. Powers of pleasurable or painful excitement on the occurrence of sense-perceptions with imaginations - emotions.
17. A power of expressing feelings by sounds or gestures, which may affect other individuals - emotional language.
18. A power of spontaneous activity in response to sensations or emotions - organic volition.

3. In the possession of all these varied powers, we and the cat are similar. But in spite of this resemblance, common sense and reason assure us that there is a profound difference between the mind of man and the highest psychical powers of the cat. This difference is made plain and obvious to our senses by the fact that we can talk, while neither the cat nor any other beast or bird has the gift of SPEECH.

It may, perhaps, be objected that it was just before declared that the cat has language. Now, no mistake can well be greater than that of confounding together two things essentially different on account of some superficial resemblance which may exist between At to call bats, birds, or whales, fishes, would be error of this kind.

The cat has a language of sounds and gestures to express its feelings and emotions. So have we. But we have further, what neither the cat nor any other beast or bird has - a language of sounds and gestures to express our THOUGHTS! I do not refer to articulate sounds. Rational language can exist without oral speech, and articulate sounds may be uttered (as by parrots and certain idiots) though reason be absent. Articulate speech (or the oral word) is but one mode (though much the most convenient mode) of making known the far more important and significant thought (or mental word). It is the latter which generates the former, as we see again and again in each new branch of science or art, wherein new conceptions having been evolved, new words are coined to give expression to them. Men do not invent new articulate sounds first, and attach meanings to them afterwards, but the very reverse.

[Dr. Bastian, in the work lately referred to, has a short chapter entitled, "From Brute to Human Intelligence," in which he considers the question of language, with the intention of showing that there is only a difference of degree between the mind of man and that of a brute. But he not only quite fails to show how the human intellect could have originated, but even gives up his own contention by speaking (p. 415) of human language as having been "started by some hidden and unknown process of natural development, or as a still more occult God-sent gift to man."]

Great ambiguity and confusion exist as to LANGUAGE, six kinds of which may be distinguished: -

(1) Sounds which are neither articulate nor rational, such as cries of pain, or the murmur of a mother to her infant.
(2) Sounds which are articulate but not rational, such as the talk of parrots, or of certain idiots, who will repeat, without comprehending, every phrase they hear.
(3) Sounds which are rational but not articulate, such as the inarticulate ejaculations by which we sometimes express assent to, or dissent from, given propositions.
(4) Sounds which are both rational and articulate, constituting true "speech."
(5) Gestures which do not answer to rational conceptions, but are merely the manifestations of emotions and feelings.
(6) Gestures which do answer to rational conceptions, and are therefore "external," but not "oral," manifestations of the mental word. Such are many of the gestures of deaf mutes, who, being incapable of articulating words, have invented or acquired a language of gesture.

4. But that the true nature of the cat- mind may be the better appreciated, it is desirable to recognize distinctly what are those HUMAN MENTAL POWERS, of the possession of which by the cat no evidence exists. They are the following ones: -

(1) A power of apprehending abstract ideas gathered from concrete objects, such as the ideas, being, substance, unity, truth, cause, humanity, etc. - abstraction.
2) A power of apprehending external objects as such, and recognizing that they exist in truth - intellectual perception.
3) A power of directly perceiving our own existence - self-consciousness.
4) A power of turning the mind back upon what has been directly apprehended - reflexion.
5) A. power of actively searching for, and so recalling past thoughts or experiences - intellectual memory.
6) A power of uniting our intellectual apprehensions into an explicit affirmation or negation - judgment.
7) A power of combining ideas, and so giving rise to the perception of new truths thus arrived at - intellectual synthesis and induction.
(8) A power of mentally dissecting ideas, and so gaining other new truths, and also of apprehending truths as necessarily involved in judgments previously made - intellectual analysis, deduction and ratiocination.
(9) A power of apprehending some truths as absolutely, positively and universally necessary - intellectual intuition.
(10) Powers of pleasurable or painful excitement on the occurrence of intellectual apprehensions - higher, or intellectual emotions.
(11) A power of giving expression to our ideas by external bodily signs - rational language.
(12) A power of, on certain occasions, deliberately electing to act (or to abstain from acting) either with, or in opposition to, the resultant of involuntary attractions and repulsions - will.

Now all the actions performed by the cat - all of which may be grouped under one or other of the eighteen groups of the former list of faculties [In the second section of this chapter] - are such as may be understood to take place without deliberation or self-consciousness. For such action it is necessary, indeed, that the animal should sensibly cognize external things, but it is not necessary that it should intellectually perceive their being; that it should feel itself existing, but not recognize that existence; that it should feel relations between objects, but not that it should apprehend them as relations; that it should remember, but not intentionally seek to recollect; that it should feel and express emotions, but not itself advert to them; that it should seek the pleasurable, but not that it should make the pleasurable its deliberate aim.

In fact, all the mental phenomena displayed by the cat, are capable of explanation by the former list of psychical powers, without the aid of any one of those enumerated in the above catalogue of truly rational faculties,+ nor could any of the former by any mere increase of intensity, change into one of the latter, for they differ not in degree, but in kind.

[As a friend of mine, Professor Clarke, has put it: - "In ourselves sensations presently set the intellect to work; but to suppose that they do so in the dog is to beg the question that the dog has an intellect. A cat to bestir itself to obtain its scraps after dinner, need not entertain any belief that the clattering of plates when they are washed is usually accompanied by the presence of food for it, and that to secure its share it must make certain movements; for quite independently of such belief, and by virtue of mere association, the simple objective conjunction of the previous sounds, movements, and consequent sensations of taste, would suffice to set up the same movements on the present occasion." Let certain sensations and movements become associated, and then the former need not be noted: they only need to exist for the association to produce its effects, and stimulate apprehension, deliberation, inference, and volition. "When the circumstances of any present case differ from those of any past experience, but imperfectly resemble those of many past experiences, parts of these, and consequent actions, are irregularly suggested by the laws of resemblance, until some action is hit on which relieves pain or gives pleasure. For instance... . let a dog be lost by his Mistress in a field in which he has never been before. The presence of the group of sensations which we know to indicate his mistress is associated with pleasure, and its absence with pain. By past experience an association has been formed between this feeling of pain and such movements of the head as tend to recover some part of that group, its recovery being again associated with movements which, de facto, diminish the distance between the dog and his mistress. The dog, therefore, pricks up his ears, raises his head and looks round. His mistress is nowhere to be seen; but at the corner of the field there is visible a gate at the end of a lane which resembles a lane in which she has been used to walk. A phantasm (or image) of that other lane, and of his mistress walking there, presents itself to the imagination of the dog; he runs to the present lane, but on getting into it she is not there. From the lane, however, he can see a tree at the other side of which she was wont to sit; the same process is repeated, but she is not to be found. Having arrived at the tree, he thence finds his way home." By the action of such feelings, imaginations, and associations - which we know to be verae causae - I believe all the apparently intelligent actions of animals may be explained without the need of calling in the help of a power, the existence of which is inconsistent with the mass, as a whole, of the phenomena they exhibit.]

Into this question, however, it is not desirable, for the object of this work, further to enter. It is the less necessary so to do, because the subject has been treated at length in a book which may be regarded as introductory to the Author's present work. I refer to "Lessons from Nature as manifested in Mind and Matter," and especially to its 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th chapters, in which the distinctions of kind which exist between the mental powers of man and the analogous powers of brutes are considered in detail.

5. Such then, in the judgment of the present writer, are the most significant facts and the most important deductions with respect to the cat's psychology in the commonly used meaning of that word. But, as has been here observed more than once, the term " Psychology"? has and should have a much wider meaning, and embrace all the vital activities, of whatsoever kind, of which any animal is capable.

These activities are of very different orders. Some of them are manifestly (like those of locomotion) activities of the entire creature. Others (like the activities of digestion or respiration) involve a large portion of the animal's body; while others again (such as those which result in the formation of a nerve-cell or a blood-corpuscle) are activities which are confined to only very minute portions of its frame.

Yet the whole of these activities must proceed harmoniously, or the animal could not continue to live in health and strength. Its body is obviously a unity. The activities of that body are in some way CO-ORDINATED and UNIFIED also. To understand this fully, is truly to understand Psychology.

6. In the foregoing chapters we have considered both the several parts of which the cat's body is made up, and also the functions which they severally and collectively perform. We have also noted the successive modifications and transformations which take place during development - i.e., those series of forms which are assumed by the developing animal, between the condition of the unimpregnated ovum and that of the adult cat.

We have seen (1) in the first place that the cat's body is made up of a collection of "systems" of organs, such as the nervous system, the muscular system, and the alimentary, circulating, respiratory, and generative systems; (2) secondly, we have seen that each such system is made up of a number of "organs," which act together in harmony. Thus we have seen, e.g., that the nervous system consists of a brain, a spinal cord, sympathetic ganglia, and various sets of nerves, some of these nerves energizing by the help of special parts, called "sense-organs" - the functions of the whole being some form of sensitivity. Again, the alimentary system we have seen to consist of a mouth with jaws, tongue and teeth, of an oesophagus, a stomach and an intestine with accessory glandular structures - the function of the whole being to minister to alimentation. So also we have seen that the cat's circulating, respiratory, and generative systems of parts, have each their special function, in the performance of which their various constituent organs harmoniously concur. (3) Thirdly, we have seen that each "organ" is made up of a greater or less number of " tissues," which together enable it to perform that function for which it is destined. Thus the stomach consists of a basis of fibrous tissue, with much muscular tissue, and is coated internally with epithelium, which, descending into superficial depressions lines the various glands which open upon its surface. It is also richly supplied with vessels and nerves. Its fibrous tissue maintains its shape and gives it the strength requisite for its continued existence. Its muscular tissue is the source of its motor power, without which it could not physically act, and its epithelial lining, endowed with its secreting properties, is the source of its digestive power, without which it could not act chemically on the food contained within it. Its vascular structure affords the nutriment which its several parts need to repair the waste of its continued action (which action, without this supply, would soon come to an end), and its nervous tissue, with its property of "impressionability," is the regulating agent which adjusts the actions of the other tissues and of the entire viscus as one whole. (4) Fourth and lastly, we have seen that each separate tissue is composed of its own ultimate parts - different in each tissue, but which may, in all cases, be said to consist of a matrix - fluid or solid, fibrous or homogeneous - with corpuscles, which are cells modified in one or another mode. We have also seen that each tissue is at first cellular, and is derived in one or another way from two layers of cells - epiblast and hypoblast - themselves the product of the spontaneous divisions of the germ-cell. Each of these cells, therefore, possesses, for a longer or shorter time, its own activity and plays its own part in contributing to the general property of that tissue of which it forms a minute portion. Thus we have:

(a.) Cell activities, contributing to that special vital property which is characteristic of each tissue.
(b.) Tissue activities, contributing to that special function which is characteristic of each organ.
(c.) Organ activities, contributing to that more complex function which is characteristic of each system of organs, viewed as one complex whole.
(d.) System activities, consisting of the combined activities of sets, or systems, of organs, and contributing to a higher and yet more complex function.

7. For just as cell activities are subsumed by that of the tissue they compose, and as the vital properties of tissues are synthesized into a higher unity by the organ of which they form a part, and as the functions of organs are embraced by the higher function of that system of parts of which such organs are members, so are the functions of all the systems of organs subsumed and synthesized into a yet higher unity, which is the life of the animal itself, and which life is the function of its body considered as one whole, just as the subordinate functions are those of that body's several sets of organs.

That the living cat is one creature in feeling and action, as well as that its body is one - i.e. , that it is a unity dynamically as well as statically - is what common sense and reason unite to assure us. These suffice to convince us that the plaintive cries of its victim, the sight of its struggling form, and the taste of its blood, may be all simultaneously felt by the same cat. More than this: such sensations call up more or less distinct reminiscences of similar feelings before experienced, and give rise to vivid emotions and appropriate actions, so that past and present sensations, of very varied kinds, are united with different emotions and appropriate actions in one existing psychical activity. Such an animal then is really the theatre of some unifying power which synthesizes its varied activities, dominates its forces, and is a PRINCIPLE OF INDIVIDUATION. There would seem to be here present, a vital force or principle, which has no organ except that of the entire body within which it resides, and the activities of which reveal that principle's existence, just as the contractions of muscular tissue make known to us its intrinsic, and otherwise imperceptible, power of contractility.

8. But it may be thought that in the nervous system we have the organ and vehicle of such unifying activity. Undoubtedly the nervous system is, as before said, the great regulator of the body's activities. But its own action requires regulation, and to be adjusted. It cannot, however, regulate itself to the actions of other systems. Moreover, all the vital activities needed for growth, sustentation, and reproduction, may exist in the greatest abundance without any trace of a nervous system, as in the great world of plants - some of which, such as the well-known sun-dew (Drosera) and Venus's fly-trap (Dionea), very curiously simulate the actions of animals. In such plants we evidently have susceptibilities to impressions of a complex kind; for impressions made by objects, such as insects, are followed by singularly appropriate actions on the part of the plants to secure and digest their living prey. Very curious too are those movements by which the roots of some plants seek moisture as if by instinct, or those by which the tendrils of certain climbers appear to search for some fitting support, and, having found it, to cling to it by what resembles a voluntary clasping.

[My friend Professor Paley, tells me that in 1863 at Penn, near Wolverhampton, a sycamore tree of considerable size was found to have sent down into a well, to reach the water, a root forty-four feet long, and about a quarter of an inch in diameter throughout. A mass of roots had wrapped themselves round the upper part of the well and nearly stopped it up. The Rev. F. H. Paley (formerly vicar of Penn, and now vicar of Church Preen, Shrewsbury) has confirmed the truth of this statement.]

[These tendrils oscillate till they touch an object, which they then embrace. The tendril of a passion-flower may sometimes: be made to bend by the pressure on it of a thread weighing no more than the thirty-second part of a grain, or by merely touching it for a time with a twig. If, however, the twig be taken away again at once, the tendril will then soon straighten itself. Yet neither the contact of other tendrils of the same plant or the fall of raindrops will produce such bendings.]

Still more remarkable is the way in which the little creeping plant, the "mother of a thousand" (Linaria), explores the surface of a wall to find an appropriate hollow for her progeny, which hollow being found, her capsule is plunged in it, and its seed is there discharged. Here, therefore, there is a co-ordination of actions for the benefit of the whole organism, and yet in no plant is there a trace of a nervous system.

9. The existence in each animal of an internal principle of individuation and co-ordination is indicated by various ANATOMICAL AND PATHOLOGICAL FACTs. We have seen the bilateral and serial symmetry which exists in the cat's body and limbs. Relations of symmetry of similar kinds show themselves also in abnormal and diseased conditions. Sir James Paget, [Lectures on Surgical Pathology, 1853, vol. i., p. 18] in treating of symmetrical diseases, mentions a lion's pelvis which was marked, through a sort of rheumatic affection, by a pattern more complex and irregular than the spots upon a map, yet so symmetrically disposed that all spots or lines on one side of the pelvis were exactly repeated by those on the other side. He also observes that diseases very often affect simultaneously such homologous parts as the backs of the hands and feet, the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet, the elbows and knees, and the corresponding parts of the upper arms and thighs.

As to monstrosities, M. Isidore Geoffroy St. Hilaire remarks: "L'anomalie se repete d'un membre thoracique au membre abdominal du meme cete," and quotes a case in which certain corresponding parts of the carpus and tarsus, the metacarpus and metatarsus and of the digits, were simultaneously absent. [Hist. Générale des Anomalies, t. i, p. 228. Bruxelles, 1837.]

Professor Burt G. Wilder has recorded t no less than twenty-four cases where such excess co-existed as regards both little fingers; six in which both little fingers and toes were similarly affected, and twenty-two cases more or less the same, but in which the details were not accurately to be obtained.

Perhaps, however, the most curious and instructive cases are those presented by some of our domestic birds. In trumpeter pigeons, and some bantams, the feet, which are usually naked, become abnormally feathered, and these feathers may even exceed in length those of the wings. They are also developed from that side of the foot which corresponds with the feather-bearing side of the hand. Moreover, in ordinary pigeons, though the digits of the hand are completely united together, the toes of the foot are free. In these abnormal pigeons, however, the outer toes become more or less united together by skin like the fingers.

[Massachusetts Medical Society, vol. ii, No. 3, June 2, 1868.]

Facts such as these, seem to make evident the existence in each animal, which as a whole is a visible unity, of an innate polar force tending to carry out development in definite directions, but liable to have its effects modified by the action of surrounding circumstances. All such animals however, as those just mentioned, have a well developed nervous system; but there are other animals in which symmetry of form is carried to the highest degree, while yet no trace of a nervous system is to be detected in them. Such creatures are the Radiolarians - minute marine organisms of almost the simplest structure as regards their soft substance, but which have siliceous skeletons of extreme complexity and beauty, and, at the same time, of marvellous symmetry.

10. In such an animal as the cat, then, we have indeed evidence of a principle of individuation; for in it we have not only symmetry of organization and harmonious organic action (as in the lowly organized creatures just referred to), but also sense perceptions, which meet in a central sensitive faculty able to discriminate the odorous from the coloured and the sapid from the audible. Not that there is any reason to think that the cat can appreciate the odours, &c., as such, but only that it is practically impressed by the relations and distinctions between its own sensations as well as between the objects which elicit them. It has, in fact, not consciousness but "CONSENTIENCE." [Mivart tries to reconcile the concept of physical being and the immaterial "soul"]

14. But some writers who fully recognize the fact of the two co-existing cycles of animal life (the physical and the immaterial) have regarded the latter (the immaterial) as the mere effect of the former (the physical), and have denied to the feelings of animals, or to the thoughts of men, any power to act as causes in the events of life - both animals and men being regarded as mere automata. [. . .] A clock, to be really comparable with an animal, must be capable of winding itself up, gathering oil to replace that which is used up in its movements, repairing any trifling injuries which may result from the friction of its wheels, and finally, of giving forth from time to time miniature reproductions of itself destined ultimately to attain the size of the parent timepiece. Now an animal such as the cat, is a complex structure which really has all these powers, and its parts are, as we have seen, so mutually adjusted to serve one another, that it may be said to be a mechanism the parts of which are reciprocally ends and means. The nervous system ministers to the circulation, the circulation to the nervous system, and both these to the alimentary system which nourishes them again; and so on throughout the whole complex collection of apparatus which make up the cat's body.

But that body is one which, like a machine, does act mechanically and necessarily, because its actions are necessarily determined by the adjustments of its various parts. Yet its actions do not take place without sensations, and these sensations are not the mere accompaniments of bodily actions, but are themselves guides and directing agencies which intervene and operate upon, though they do not break through, the circle of its bodily actions. The feeling of the blow of a stick, or the sight of a threatened blow, will change the course of action which a cat would otherwise have pursued. That it is the feeling or the sight of the stick, together with the various passed feelings or imaginations which such fresh experience calls up, which causes the change, will be disputed by no one who has not some eccentric thesis to maintain. [. . . Mivart discusses and disputes whether animals are mere automata]

15. But let us learn a little more from our own experience of our own nature. We know that a whole multitude of actions, which are at first performed with attention and full consciousness, come at last to be performed unconsciously; we know that effective impressions may be made on our organs of sense without our knowledge - our attention at the time of the occurrence being diverted. We know also that countless organic activities take place in us under the influence and control of the nervous system, which either never rise into consciousness at all, or only do so under abnormal conditions. Yet we cannot but think that those activities are of the same generic nature, whether we feel, perceive, or attend to them or not. The principle of individuation in ourselves, then, evidently acts with intelligence in some actions, with sentience in many actions, but constantly in an unperceived and unfelt manner. Yet we have seen that it undeniably intervenes in the chain of physical causation.

The principle of individuation in the cat is a principle which subsumes into a higher unity, which unifies and directs the active properties of all the cells and tissues, and the functions of all the organs and system of organs which make up the animal's corporeal frame. Its activities are: (1) mainly unfelt and occupied with the simplest vital processes of the organism. Amongst these there is much organic discrimination, and that automatic memory of the organism which, is, as it were, the basis of that felt memory which intervenes in the animal's mental activity; (2) They are those various feelings and emotions which make up its mental powers. Common sense is right, then, when it says "the cat sees, the cat hears, the cat feels, the cat runs, plays, hunts," &c.; for it is the whole living organism which does all these things, and not merely its brain, muscles, or any portion of that inseparable unity of which it consists. Moreover, it is the invisible, immaterial entity which ever escapes our senses but which is visible to our reason, which is more truly and emphatically THE CAT ITSELF, than is the matter of which it is composed. The energy, direction, and control belong to it, and without it the cat is not. The dead body of the cat we may anatomise at will, but the animal itself being dead has no existence, any more than a "corpse" is a "dead man."

The dead body of a man is a perfectly correct expression, but to speak of a dead man, a dead cat, or a dead bird, though, of course, fully permissible in popular speech, is really and philosophically to use an expression as self-contradictory as it would be to say a "dead living creature." [. . .]

17. In order to make clearer what has been pointed out, it may be well to define more distinctly certain terms. The psyche or soul, then, is that principle of individuation which makes the animal what it is, though it has no actual existence apart from the matter it vivifies. [. . .] The action of the psyche includes every vital action of the organism of whatsoever kind, each and every such action being a "psychosis" of one kind or another. The specially animal activity of the organism - animal psychosis - is the sum of all those activities to which the nervous system ministers. Every such activity - every activity of living, neural matter - is a neural psychosis, and ends in a feeling, a secretion or a motion. Neural psychosis then may be either felt or unfelt, and amongst the felt actions of the kind, are all sensations, memories, imaginations, emotions and felt impulses tending to result in action, and those practical inferences before referred to. The sum of felt, neural psychoses in the cat, is the so-called "cat-mind" or synesthesis, and every felt neural psychosis is a synesthetic or so-called "mental" act.

[The terms "mind" and mental act' are not, of course, properly applicable to the felt neural psychosis of the cat or of any unrational animal. They are here merely employed analogically in deference to popular usage. The "mind" properly denotes the phenomena of our consciousness - the rational soul energizing both corporeally and consciously. Such action cannot take place without the aid of neural psychosis to furnish the images or phantasmata needful for all human mental action; but though so aided, the action itself is purely immaterial. The sum-total of the mental action of a rational animal may be called its noesis, which will be the analogue of the synesthesis or sum-total of the felt neural psychoses of an irrational animal.]

The remaining, or vegetative activities of the organism - vegetal psychosis - is the sum of all those activities which result in nutrition and generation - the maintenance of the individual organism and the reproduction of new individuals. This form of psychosis exists by itself in plants, but in the animal organism is most intimately united with animal psychosis. It is so because, as we have seen in the cat, the nervous system ministers to nutrition and to reproduction as well as to feeling and to motion. The animal and vegetal psychoses are thus intimately united because the cat, being a true unity, can have but one principle of individuation - or psyche - which must therefore be the agent of all the vegetative as well as of all the animal psychoses which take place in it.

18. Such being the principle of individuation as made known to us in the adult animal, what are we to say of it in the earlier stages of the cat's existence? This question cannot be duly considered without recognizing that though living creatures have principles of individuation of the most varied kinds, yet that they are susceptible of being classed in two groups - animals and plants. As we descend to the lowest animals, the evidence as to sentience diminishes; while (from the resemblances of the lowest animals and plants, and from the similarity of the vegetative functions in all living creatures) we may analogically conclude that activities take place in plants which are parallel with, and analogous to the unfelt and non-neural psychoses of animals. [. . .]

Now we have seen that the cat begins its existence as a minute spheroidal mass of protoplasm, which is capable of spontaneous division and which can imbibe nutriment and grow. It is comparable with a lowly organized plant. As function varies with structure we cannot deny a vegetal psyche to the creature at this stage of its existence, though we have no grounds for attributing to it as yet a really animal nature. But growth continues and produces a complexity of structure which demands a principle of individuation of a higher order. Slowly the blastoderm is developed - the epiblast becomes furrowed, and the developing matter grows here and there into nervous and muscular tissue. We have then the organs of true animal life, and we are therefore compelled to conclude that, in a way which defies our powers of observation to detect, that vegetal principle which at first acted has disappeared to give place to a truly animal psyche. But the embryo is, as yet, no cat, neither is it like any other perfect animal. At first it is somewhat like a worm, but afterwards its visceral clefts and arches and the course of its blood current, show affinities (as we shall see in the thirteenth chapter) with the class of Fishes. These conditions disappear, and are succeeded by a structure which, though of a higher nature, yet for a time remains quite unlike that of a cat, and if the matter of its body is not that of a cat, neither can its inner principle be that of such an animal. Change, however, follows on change, till the activity of the principle which is operating (of whatever kind,) has so prepared and modified the living mass, that the embryo comes to assume the shape of a kitten. Simultaneously also, must that principle of individuation which is proper to the cat, have informed the embryonic structure.

In the development of the individual therefore, we see a process of singular and surprising change, during which a series of transitory forms successively appear and disappear [Mivart discusses embryo development as akin to evolution (the "recapitulation" theory) and asks "when does an embryo develop a soul?" because a soul is incompatible with primitive forms.]

Thus the psychology of the cat shows us that there is latent and potential in matter, special and peculiar substantial forms of force, such as the psyche of the animal we are considering, and such as the various lower forms which transitorily manifest themselves as forme transeuntes, during its process of development. It also shows us that the very action of one such form may be so ordered as to result in its own annihilation in order to give place to another, for the advent of which other its own activity has prepared the way, and which other emerges from potential to actual existence the moment the matter has assumed the condition apt for the new form's manifestation. The psychology of the cat is, as has been before said more than once, the physiology of the creature in its entirety. We shall hereafter have to consider another unity - that of the race - the evolution of which may, by a remote anology, be termed "the physiology of the species." Such an expression is not, however, exact, for a "species" is a creature of the intellect, and no such creature can have any real action; whereas the individual animal, with its principle of individuation, is a concrete, really existing, and really acting entity. Nevertheless we shall presently see that the psychological considerations here put forward have their bearing upon the question as to the origin and genesis of the first cat and of the whole cat race.

CHAPTER XII. - DIFFERENT KINDS OF CATS.

1. In the first chapter of this work the principal varieties of the domestic cat were shortly described, together with its probable ancestors, the Egyptian cat and the common wild cat. But our knowledge of the cat would evidently be very incomplete if no acquaintance were made with the various animals most closely related to it, which now exist or have existed, and which may fairly be reckoned as "different kinds of cats." In fact, cats of all kinds agree so closely in structure, and differ so decidedly, in that respect, from animals that are not cats, that they are universally admitted to form what is called a "very natural group ' - that is to say, a group of animals easily characterized, and containing no members which differ strikingly from the other members of the group.

But though it is very easy to say whether an animal is a cat, it is often exceedingly difficult to determine what kind of cat it is. The lion, the tiger, the leopard, the puma, and the cheetah, and various other kinds of cats, are very well-marked forms. No one can mistake any of these animals one from another, but there are a great many smaller cats which are in a very different case. Many of them vary much in colour (and somewhat in shape and more in size) from individual to individual. Certain kinds have received from different naturalists more than one name, and it is often a task of much difficulty to find out which is the proper name which any given kind ought to bear.

To do this perfectly, it is necessary to examine the very individual skins which were originally described by the authors of the several names - which skins are the "types" of the various kinds or "species." When (as is very often the case) this is impossible, it is needful to critically examine the original descriptions, bearing in mind any collateral circumstances which may throw light upon the question as to which kind any particular author must have had in view when he wrote the original description. The investigation of this complex tangle of zoological literature is called the study of Synonymy, and it is often a study exceedingly difficult, on account of the too frequently very imperfect descriptions given by the proposers of new names. But there is yet another difficulty. Though the lion, tiger, leopard, &c., cannot be mistaken one from another, yet all lions are by no means alike, nor are all tigers or all leopards alike. They all present individual variations, and these are sometimes so marked that certain naturalists have thought it desirable to distinguish one breed of lion by one name and another by another, and so with leopards and other species. The questions then immediately arise: (1) are these peculiar forms all "KINDS" such as we must take note of for our present purpose? and (2) what are the circumstances which should lead us. to consider any given form as constituting a distinct "kind" of animal?

Now, the various breeds of cats, such as we enumerated in the first chapter, are called "varieties," while a lion and a tiger are not called two " varieties' but two "species." What is the difference, then, between a SPECIES and a VARIETY?

2. The exact philosophical signification of the term "species" will be considered in the last chapter; here, we may take it to have two meanings - one MORPHOLOGICAL; the other, PHYSIOLOGICAL. According to the first of these, it signifies a group of animals which are alike in appearance. If two groups of animals differ markedly in appearance, and if no transitional forms are known which bridge over, as it were, the difference thus existing between them, then such two groups are reckoned as two distinct "species" according to this first, or morphological, signification of that term, i.e., they are morphological species. The second use of the word "species" is to denote a group of animals which can breed freely amongst themselves, but which, if united with animals of another appearance, will not produce fertile cross-breeds with them; that is to say, they will not produce young which can go on indefinitely producing amongst themselves a race of cross-breeds as freely as either set of parent animals would have gone on reproducing forms like themselves. Creatures which are in this way restricted, are physiological species.

As to the various breeds of domestic cats, we know that they can be crossed and will produce perfectly fertile mongrels, and therefore they are not physiologically "species," however truly each breed, as long as it is uncrossed, will go on reproducing its own race - i.e., will go on "breeding true."

As to the wild cats of all kinds - lioons, leopards, &c. - we know that some of them will interbreed and produce young, but we have no knowledge that such young will go on freely producing creatures like themselves, while, from analogy with other animals, we should be disposed to believe that they would not do so. Still we have as yet no observations to determine their specific distinctness physiologically, and therefore we must as yet be content to judge of them morphologically, by the absence that is of intermediate forms between the apparently distinct kinds. Whenever new forms are found so intermediate in character between two breeds previously reckoned as distinct species, that these new forms quite bridge over the difference previously supposed to exist, then the supposed two species must thenceforth be reckoned as one, and that one must bear the older of the two names previously in use.

There is a probability of physiological specific distinctness wherever there is an absence of transitional forms, for, if two kinds readily interbred and produced fertile offspring, transitional forms would, in most cases, soon abound.

For our present purpose, then, the "kinds" of cats which we have to consider are such kinds as we may reasonably, on morphological grounds, suppose to be "species" in the full sense of the term, and therefore, where the differences are confessedly slight and variable (as between different lions and different leopards), the creatures which present them will be reckoned as forming one species only. When, however, the evidence is very scanty and incomplete, it is thought well that kinds should be distinguished provisionally by distinct names, on the authority of different naturalists, for fear any really important kind should get omitted from the list.

3. In zoology (as also in botany) each "species"? has a name consisting of two words, which correspond with the Christian name and the surname of a man, except that their order is different - an animal's surname coming before the other name. ‘The first word or term of an animal's name indicates to which " group" or " set" of species the animal named belongs; and as each " group" or " set" of species is called a "genus," this first word is called its " generic name. ‘The second word indicates to which kind or "species" of the genus the named animal belongs, and so this second word is therefore called its "specific'? name. Thus the zoological name of the wild cat consists of the two words, Felis catus. The first of these is the generic name, and indicates that the wild cat belongs to the group or "genus" FELIS. The second word is the specific name, and shows that the wild cat is that kind of the genus "Felis" which is distinguished as "catus."

4. Following the order which is traditional, the Lion, with its regal and national associations, may be taken first.

(1.) The Lion (Felis leo).
[For a good figure of the skeleton, see De Blainville's Ostéographie, Felis, plates 5 and 9.]

This powerful and well-known cat is at once distinguished from all others, by the familiar fact that the male possesses a "mane," that is to say, that the hair of the head, neck, and shoulders is long. The hair also forms a tuft at the end of the tail, at the extremity of which, surrounded by the long hair, is a small, pointed, horny appendage. The rest of the body is mostly clothed with short hair. The adult lion is of a yellowish-brown colour, without spots or stripes, but the colour varies in intensity, and the long hair is often blackish. The young are marked with little transverse dark bands on each side of the body, and with a longitudinal black mark along the middle of the back. The mane begins to grow when the animal is about three years old, and is completed when it is about six years old.

It is said to live for forty, and certainly lives for thirty, years, and it attains a length of 9-and-a-half feet. The animal's internal organization is such as has been already described with respect to the cat, save in certain details. Thus the pupil is round, never contracting into a vertical slit. The anterior cornua of the hyoid bone do not continue up to the skull, but an elastic ligament, about six inches in length, connects, on each side, the lesser cornu of the os hyoides with the tympano-hyal. The intestine is four times the length of the body." [Owen, Trans. of Zool. Soc., vol. i, pp. 130 and 131.]

The convolutions of the brain are rather more contorted than in the cat, and the same is the case with all the largest species of cat-like animals. The tapetum extends mostly below the optic nerve, only a small portion being above it. [Owen, Anat. of Vertebrates, vol. iii., p. 252.] The nasal processes of the maxillary bones end acutely, and reach backwards, on the dorsum of the skull, as far as, or a little beyond, the nasals. In the skull of one old lion which I have examined, there is no trace of upper true molars, or even of their alveoli. [No. 4504 a, in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons.]

The lion is not an arboreal animal, but roams over the plains of the countries it inhabits. It is found generally diffused in Africa, also in Persia and Arabia, and in Cutch and Gujerat in Western India. It is occasionally met with as far east as near Allahabad. Formerly it existed all over central India and in South-eastern Europe. [Lions attacked the baggage camels of Xerxes when in Macedonia.] We have no valid ground, however, for believing that a large maned-cat, or lion, ever inhabited England or the adjacent part of Europe.

(2.) The Tiger (Felis tigris)
[See D. G. Elliot's Monograph of Felidae, and De Blainville's Osteographie, Felis, plate 7.]

The Tiger is the largest and most powerful of all existing cats. It is of a bright rufous fawn colour on the dorsal surface of the trunk, head, and limbs, with vertical and with transverse dark stripes on the body, limbs and tail. These markings serve to distinguish it from every other cat. The hair of the cheeks is rather long and spreading. That of the ventral surface is white. The animal may attain a length of ten feet six inches. Its maxillary bones end bluntly, and do not reach as far backwards as do the nasals. The hyoid is connected to the skull by ligaments - as in the lion. The pupil is round, and never linear. Tigers that prey on cattle will kill an ox about every five days, and may destroy sixty or seventy head of cattle in a year. The tiger very seldom kills his prey by the "sledge-hammer stroke" of his fore-paw, so often talked about. His usual way is to seize it with the teeth by the nape of the neck, and at the same time use the paws to hold the victim and give a purchase for the wrench by which the tiger dislocates its neck. [Forsyth's Highlands of Central Asia, p. 257.] It is naturally a cowardly animal, and retreats till provoked or wounded, and may even be made to drop its prey by cattle rushing at if in a body.

It will eat animals which it has not killed, and even its own species, for a tiger left wounded is related to have been dragged off by another tiger and partially devoured. [Jerdon's Mammals of India, p. 94.] The tigress breeds once a year, and has from two to five pups. Hybrids between the lion and the tiger are sometimes produced in captivity.

The tiger is not an arboreal animal, but delights in thickets, especially near rivers. It is exclusively Asiatic, but has a very wide range, extending from Turkish Georgia, Mount Ararat, Persia, the Amoor land, and the island of Saghalien in the north, through China (including Corea) to the south of Hindostan, and the islands of the Indian Archipelago, down to Sumatra, Java, and the island of Bali; but it is not found in Borneo, nor in Ceylon.

(3.) The Leopard or Panther (felis pardus).
[See Elliot's Mon., and De Blainville's Osteog. Plate 8.]

This animal is very variable in size and in its markings, so that some naturalists consider that there are several species, which however see in ill-defined and variable. It is generally of a yellowish rufous fawn colour, with many dark spots grouped in rosettes, while the tail is ringed and the ventral surface is whitish. The head and body are about three feet ten inches long, and the tail is about two inches shorter. There is a well marked variety which, though black, shows the usual markings when viewed in certain lights. Its pupil is round. The hyoid is connected with the skull by ligaments, and not by a continuous chain of bones.

The leopard is an arboreal animal. Though so much smaller than the tiger, old women and children are not unfrequently killed by it.

This species has a very wide range, being found in Africa from Algeria to Cape Colony, and in Asia from Palestine and Japan to Ceylon and Java. A leopard has been described by Professor Alphonse Milne-Edwards, under the name of F. Fonteirii, and is said to be distinguishable by the shorter muzzle, longer and more copious fur, and by the markings on the flanks being more like rings than rosettes. The tail also is shorter than the body. Two individuals have been obtained: one from China, the other from Persia. [Recherches sur les Mammiferes, p. 208, plates 29, 30, and 31.]

(4.) The Ounce (Felis uncia).
[See Elliot's Monograph, from which the above figure has been, by kind permission, copied. ]

This is a very interesting species, exhibiting to us, as it does, a large feline animal adapted to live in acold climate, as the mammoth was exceptionally so adapted amongst elephants. It is clothed in a dense long fur, which even forms a short mane. It is from four to four and a half feet long without the tail, which measures a yard. The fur is of a pale yellowish grey, with small irregular dark spots on the head, cheeks, back of neck and limbs, and with dark rings on the back and sides. It is whitish beneath, with some large dark spots about the middle of the abdomen; the rest of the belly is unspotted. The long bushy tail is surrounded by incomplete black bands. The length of the head and body is four feet four inches, that of the tail three feet. The skull is very high, but concave in front of the orbit when viewed in profile. The nasals are remarkably short and broad. The pupil is round.

The Ounce is found in the highlands of Central Asia and the Himalayas, where it ranges from 9000 to 18,000 feet, rarely descending very much below the snows. It has, however, been found as far west as Smyrna. [Jerdon's Mammals of India, p. 101.] It is said to frequent rocky ground, and to feed on wild and domestic sheep, goats and dogs, but has never been known to attack man.

An animal has been described as a new species of ounce, under the name F. tulliana. [See Valenciens, Comptes Rendus, 1856, t xlii, p. 1035, and Tchichatcheff's Asie Min., 1856, vol. ii., p. 613, plate 1.] It seems to be more slender than F. uncia, with longer legs, and with a longer and narrower head. Its hair is also less long, thick and soft, while the annular spots are more numerous and smaller, and the round spots on the upper part of the back are smaller than those of the flanks. The tail is less thick and still less completely annulated.

(5.) THE Puma or American Lion (Felis concolor).
[See De Blainville, 7. c., plate 6, and Baird's Mammals of North America. See also Godman and Salvin's Biologia Centrali-Americana, Mammalia, by E. R. Alston, p. 62.]

5. The Puma isa large cat, somewhat like a rather slender lioness, as it is unstriped and unspotted when adult, and devoid of a mane. It is of a reddish brown or reddish grey colour generally, whitish beneath. The young are marked with blackish brown spots, which disappear at about the end of the first year. Its head is proportionately rather small compared with those of the large cats already noticed. Its length from snout to tail-root is generally about forty inches, and it has a tail of some twenty-six inches. The skull is remarkable for its depth anteriorly. The os hyoides is connected with the skull by a continuous chain of bones, as in the cat. The pupil is round.

The puma eats deer, small quadrupeds, and the Rhea, or American ostrich, and sometimes destroys human life. It is said to kill by springing on the shoulders of its prey and then drawing back the head with one paw till the neck is broken. It is a remarkably silent animal, never roaring like the lion and tiger. It inhabits a very wide range, being spread over America from the Straits of Magellan to Canada, and ascending the Andes to 9000 feet altitude.

(6.) The Jaguar (Felis onca).
[See Elliot's Monograph, also Cuvier's Ossemens Fossiles, plate 34, pp. 3 and 4, and De Blainville, 7. c., plate 3; also Biologia, p. 58. ]

This is also a New World species, and the most powerful of the American cats. Its colour and markings are like those of the leopard, save that its spots are larger and more definitely arranged in groups, forming series of dark rings, each ring generally enclosing one or more spots within it. There is, however, a considerable amount of individual variation in the extent and arrangement of these markings, and the most southern forms are said to be generally yellow and sometimes almost white. In size the jaguar somewhat exceeds the leopard. A prominent bony tubercle exists on the middle of the inner or nasal edge of the orbit. [This tubercle exists also in some other cats, but is not so largely or constantly developed in any other species as it is in the jaguar.] The pupil is round.

A variety has been described and figured by Dr. Gray as Leopardus Hernandesii. [Pro. Zool. Soc., 1857, p. 278, plate 58.]

The jaguar is a very fierce animal, and often destroys men and women. Its favourite haunts are the wooded banks of rivers, and its habitual food is the giant rodent - the capybara. This great cat ranges from the Red River, Louisiana, and the Rio Bravo, Texas, down to the most northern parts of Patagonia, i.e., to 40 degrees south latitude.

(7.) The Clouded Tiger (Felis macrocelis).
[See Pro. Zool. Soc., 1858, p. 192. It is described also by Jerdon in his Mammals of British India.]

6. This very handsome and interesting animal - the last of the series of very large cats - has a coat, the ground colour of which is a brownish grey, marked with stripes and spots of black, which form large and irregularly disposed patches. The under parts are, as usual, whitish. The cheeks and sides of the head are marked with two parallel bands, one extending backwards from the eye to beneath the ear, the other more or less parallel, and passing backwards from above the angle of the mouth.

The animal is about forty-two inches long from snout to tail-end, while the tail itself (which is ringed with black) is some thirty-two inches. The limbs are short compared with the body and very long tail, and the head is somewhat elongated compared with that of any of the cats yet noticed. The skull is very long and low. The orbit is widely open behind. The animal differs from all the cats yet noticed, in that it has not the tooth described as the first upper premolar, while that answering to the common cat's second upper premolar is not very large. The upper canines, however, are exceedingly long, longer relatively than in any other living cat. The upper sectorial tooth has a large inner cusp.

The pupil is neither round nor linear when contracted, but has an oblong aperture.

This animal affords a good example of the great individual differences of disposition which may exist in the same species of cat. One specimen in our Zoological Gardens was a most tame and gentle beast, while another was quite exceptionally ill-tempered and savage. The clouded tiger dwells in trees. It preys upon such animals as sheep, goats, pigs or dogs.

Its range, though extensive, is more restricted than that of any species yet noticed, as it inhabits only a portion of south-eastern Asia, from the eastern Himalayas, through Burmah, Siam and the Malay peninsula, to Sumatra, Borneo and Java. It also inhabits Formosa. One from the last-named island has been described by Mr. Swinhoe as a distinct species. It is, however, only a somewhat brighter coloured and shorter tailed variety. [As the short-tailed clouded tiger (Felis brachyurus). (Leopardus brachyurus, Swinhoe, Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1862, p. 352, plate 43).]

(8.) The Thibet Tiger Cat (Felis scripta).
[A. Milne-Edwards, Nouvelles Archives du Museum, 1870, t. vii., Bulletin, p. 92, and Recherches, p. 351, plates 57 and 58, Fig. 1.]

A much smaller cat, but with markings somewhat like those of the clouded tiger, has been discovered in the mountains of Thibet by the Abbé David, and made known and named by Professor Alphonse Milne-Edwards, who has described it as follows: -

General colour pale grey inclining to yellow, with reddish brown spots and more or less complete black margins. In the scapular region these spots form longitudinal, undulating bands - looking a little like Chinese writing. The largest of these dark lines begins near the inner angle of the eye, and goes thence above the ear to the scapular region of the back and then descending obliquely, widens out. A similar line, placed higher up, extends from the forehead to the shoulder. There are large irregularly shaped spots on the sides of the body. At the hinder part of the back they form bands and bars, not complete rings, on the tail. Part of cheek, neck and chest white, with transverse black markings. Belly yellowish, with longitudinal black marks. There are black spots and bands outside the legs. The iris is of a yellowish chestnut colour.

Length of the head and body twenty-one and a half inches, of tail ten and a half inches. The first upper premolar is small, and appears soon to fall out, as on one side of the skull figured the tooth is wanting. It inhabits Monpin in Thibet.

(9.) Fontaneir's Spotted Cat (Felis tristis).
[Alphonse Milne Edwards, Recherches des Mammif., p. 223, plate 31 D, and Elliot's Monograph. ]

This cat may be distinguished from the other species of the same countries as it inhabits, by its large size, whitish grey colour and large spots. It is described as follows: -

Fur soft and long; general colour a whitish grey. Three or four blackish brown lines, beginning in the centre of the head, between the ears, run along the whole length of the back; rest of the body, flanks and legs covered with large spots of dark brown. Underparts lighter than the upper, legs profusely marked and spotted with brown. Two bars of rufous brown pass across the upper part of the breast. Tail very long and bushy, rufous brown above, yellowish brown beneath. The upper part presenting a series of obscure dark brown bars. Length of head and body, thirty-three and a half inches; length of tail, sixteen inches.

This animal inhabits the interior of China. The skin of the typical specimen was bought at Pekin.

(10.) The Bay Cat (Felis aurata).
[Felis aurata, Jerdon's Mammals of British India, p. 107; F. moormensis, Hodgson; F. Temminckii, Vigors; Leopardus auratus, Gray; Cat. Brit. Mus., p. 12.]

This is a large one-coloured cat, and a very distinct species. It is from twenty-eight to thirty-one inches long from snout to tail, while the tail measures sixteen or nineteen inches. It is a bay-red above, paler beneath and on the sides, with a few indistinct spots on the flanks. The throat is whitish, while the tip of the tail and the ears, internally, are blackish. The ventral surface is reddish white, spotted brown. There are two black streaks on each cheek, with a pale black-edged line over the eyes. The pupil is said by Hodgson to be round.

According to Mr. Jerdon it inhabits Nepal and Sikim. Dr. Gray adds as habitats, Sumatra and Borneo, and one (received by the Zoological Society from Amsterdam) is said to be from Sumatra.

(11.) The Fishing Car (Felis viverrina).
[Bennett, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1883, p. 68. It is described in Mr. Elliot's monograph, from which the above figure is taken. It is also described by Jerdon in his Mammals of British India, p. 103. It is the animal named Viverriceps Benettii, by Dr. Gray, in his Catalogue of the Carnivora, p. 17, Fig. 5, and in Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 286, Fig. 5, which figure has been here reproduced.]

This well-marked and very distinct species was originally described by Bennett in 1833, and the type of the species is preserved in the British Museum.

Its hair is short and rather coarse. Though usually of a general dark grey colour (darkest on the back), specimens may occasionally be found of a reddish grey ground tint. It is always covered with dark brown spots, smallest and least conspicuous on the shoulders. The head and back have three or four dark brown lines going lengthwise, which, however, upon the lower back and rump become broken up into spots like those on the flanks and other parts. Two blackish brown lines pass across the cheek, one from behind and one from beneath the eye, and a line of the same hue crosses the throat just below the chin. Throat and breast white, the latter crossed by three or four blackish brown lines passing from shoulder to shoulder. Belly same colour as flanks, spotted with blackish brown in continuous lines crosswise. Inside of legs greyish white, with from two to three dark brown bars crossing the upper part near the body. Tail rather short, slender, same colour as the back, barred above with chestnut brown, the bars going diagonally, and meeting in the centre, forming a V-shaped mark; tip chestnut brown. Underneath greyish white. Length of head and body, thirty to thirty-two inches; length of tail, nine to twelve inches. The skull is elongated above. The orbits are completely encircled by bone. The first upper is present but is very small.

Mr. Jerdon says that the pupil is circular. He also tells us that F. viverrina "is found throughout Bengal to the foot of the south-eastern Himalayas, extending into Burmah, China, and Malayana, and that it is common in Travancore and Ceylon, extending up the Malabar coast as far as Mangalore."

Mr. Buchanan says that besides fish it eats Ampulluriae and Unios, and that it has a very isagreeable smell. It is exceedingly fierce, and has been known to carry off children.

(12.) The Leopard Cat (Felis bengalensis).
[See Jerdon's Mammals of British India, p. 105. This animal is the Felis pardochroa of Dr. Gray (Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, pp. 273 and 400; and Catalogue of Carnivora, p. 28). It is also his F. tenasserimensis (Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 400; and Catalogue, p. 28) and his F, Ellioti. The last named is only represented by skulls in the British Museum, but these are quite similar to the skulls of F. pardochroa. It is also the F. nepalensis of Dr. Gray. Mr. Elliot, in his Monograph, identifies his F. bengalensis not only with Dr. Gray's above-mentioned species, but also with his F. Wagati, as to which latter identification I hesitate to follow him.]

There is a very distinctly spotted cat from northern India which is thus named by Mr. Elliot in his Monograph. Either this kind is subject to great variations in colour and markings, and somewhat also in size, or else there are several distinct species, which cannot yet be accurately defined for want of a sufficient number of specimens. Mr. Jerdon gives as the size of his species thus named: "Length of head and body twenty-four to twenty-six inches; tail eleven or twelve inches and more." He says it is variable, both as to the ground colour and the size and boldness of its markings, though all adhere to one general pattern.

The ground hue varies from fulvous-grey to bright tawny yellow, occasionally pale yellowish grey or yellowish, rarely greenish-ashy, or brownish-grey; lower parts pure white; four longitudinal spots on the forehead, and in a line with these four lines run from the vertex to the shoulders, the outer one broader, the centre ones narrower, and these two last are continued almost uninterruptedly to the tail; the others pass into larger, bold, irregular, unequal, longitudinal spots on the shoulders, back and sides, generally arranged in five or six distinct rows, decreasing and becoming round on the belly; two narrow lines run from the eye along the upper lip to a dark transverse throat-band; and two similar transverse bands run across the breast, with a row of spots between; tail spotted above, indistinctly ringed towards the tip; the inside of the arm has two broad bands, and the soles of all the feet are dark brown. There is generally a small white superciliary line. I have noticed in several specimens in the British Museum, that the black spots unite or tend to unite over the shoulders, so as to make a conspicuous oval black ring, not unlike the "Vesica piscis." This is not, however, always to be detected.

There is in the National Collection a skin [Skin No. 79. 11. 25. 563. It is labelled F. Duvancelli.] which came from the Indian Museum, and which differs considerably from all the specimens of F. bengalensis that I have seen, in its redder colour, more woolly hair, and thicker tail, as also in the less distinctness of its markings. It is not however in very good condition. It is said to have been brought from Nepal by Mr. B. H. Hodgson. The length of the head and body is twenty-two and a half inches; that of the tail is sixteen inches.

A first upper premolar tooth is present, but it is very small. The orbit is nearly encircled by bone. The post-orbital process of the frontal of the specimen figured has been unfortunately broken. F. bengalensis inhabits Nepal, Thibet, Darjeeling, Assam, Burmah, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Java.

(13.) The Wagati (Felis Wagati).

The cat in the British Museum which is thus named, is very like F. bengalensis; but itis a smaller animal, and its black markings are more sharply defined and decidedly in the form of short black stripes. The animal also has not the small spots on the flanks which exist in F. bengalensis, and the stripes on the shoulders are nearly parallel and do not tend to form an oval ring. It has been described by Dr. Gray as follows: "Fur fulvous; nose, chin, throat, and underside of body, and streak on forehead and cheek, pale yellow. Spots of body few, large, irregularly shaped; of withers, large, elongate, broad; of loins, elongate, narrow, more or less confluent; tail with round spots."

Length of head and body, twenty-one and a half inches. Length of tail, eleven inches. Habitat, India.

(14.) The Marbled Tiger-Cat (Felis marmorata).
[Catolynx marmoratus, Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 267; Felis Charltoni, Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1856, P. 396; and Catolynx Charltoni, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 268, and Cat. of Carnivora, p. 16.]

This cat attains a size of from nineteen to twenty-three inches from snout to tail, the tail itself being about fifteen inches. It is a very distinct species. The ground colour of its coat is dingy fulvous, occasionally yellowish grey, with numerous elongate, wavy, black spots, somewhat clouded or marbled. On the sides of the body are large irregular patches of a darker shade and with dark margins, especially on the hinder edge of each patch. The head and nape have some narrow blackish lines coalescing into a dorsal interrupted band; a dark line extends backwards from between the eye and the mouth; the thighs and part of the sides with black round spots; the tail black spotted, with a black tip. The belly is yellowish white. The colour becomes more fulvous with age.

There are several skulls of this species in the collection of the British Museum. These all agree in having the orbit nearly or completely enclosed by a bony ring - the postorbital process of the frontal meeting the postorbital process of the malar in the older specimens. The skull is very broad at the zygomata. The first upper premolar is very small, and the first lower premolar is not very prominent. The premaxillae ascend and join the frontals, thus separating the nasals from the maxillae on the surface of the skull. The pterygoid fossa is rather well developed. The pupil is said to be linear.

This species ranges from. Nepal through Burmah and Malacca to Java and Borneo.

(15.) The Serval (Felis Serval).
[This is described and figured in Mr. Elliot's Monograph.]

7. This large and well-known African cat has long legs and a short tail. It is of a more or less tawny colour, with black spots, and black rings on the tail. The underparts are whitish. Towards the middle of the back the spots tend to run together into two longitudinal bands. There is no dark streak upon the cheek, but there are two strongly marked transverse black bars across the inside of the upper part of each fore-leg. The length of the head and body may be as much as forty inches, that of the tail may be sixteen inches. The pupil contracts into an oblong opening.

There is not only a first upper premolar, but the second upper premolar is largely developed.
This animal inhabits Africa from Algiers to the Cape.

(16.) The Golden-Haired Cat (Felis rutila).
[Waterhouse, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1842, p. 130; Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, pp: 972, and 395; Cat. of Carnivora, p. 23. F. chrysothrix of Elliot's Monograph. He identifies it with both the F. aurata and the F. celidogaster of Temminck, and with the F. neglecta of Gray. ]

This species is founded upon a skin described by Mr. Waterhouse in 1842, and which (the type of the species) is preserved in the British Museum, but is unfortunately mutilated. Its colour is ae brown, with indistinct small darker spots on the sides; back, dark brown medianly; belly white, with large brown spots; tail ted- brown, with a dark ‘central line extending along its dorsal surface, while at each side it is pale, with obscure indications of darker bands.

Length of head and body about twenty-eight inches; of tail, fourteen inches. The skull has the orbits incomplete behind. There is a very small first upper premolar.
Habitat, Sierra Leone and Gambia.

There are two cats only known to me by description, as to the distinctness of which I am too much in doubt to venture to enumerate them as distinct kinds. They are F. celidogaster and F. senegalensis.

Felis celidogaster was named by Temminck, [: Esquisses Zoologiques, p. 87.] who thus describes it: "Fur short, smooth, shiny, grey, with a reddish tint, with chocolate or light brown spots; spots on dorsal line oblong, the others round; cheeks and lips whitish, with small brown spots; throat and chest with six or seven half-circular brown bands; lower parts and inner sides of the limbs pure white, with large round chocolate-brown spots; two bands of this colour on the inner side of the fore, and four on the hind feet; tail bay-brown, with paler brown rings, end black brown; outer surface of the ears black; claws white."

Length of body and head, twenty-six inches; that of tail, fourteen inches.

Mr. Elliot identifies this with the F. neglecta of Gray and the F. rutila of Waterhouse (P. Z. S. 1871, p. 759), and describes it in his Monograph under the name F. chrysothrix.

The other doubtful species is Felis senegalensis of Lesson. [Lesson, Guérin's Mag. de Zool., 1839, t. x., Mammiféres.] The fur of this animal is of a uniform reddish grey, paler beneath, with black spots inclining on the back to run into longitudinal stripes; spots on limbs; tail ringed; two black stripes from eye to ear; muzzle, chin, and throat white.

The individual described was about the size of the domestic cat, and was regarded as probably immature. It seems probably to have been a young Serval.
Habitat, Senegal.

As to this species or variety Professor Alphonse Milne-Edwards has been so kind as to inform the author that no specimen of it exists in the Paris Museum. The original description was made from a living animal at the hospital of Rochefort-sur-Mer. A young Serval in the Paris Museum closely resembles the description of F. senegalensis, but has a tuft of hairs on each ear.

(17.) The Grey African Cat (Felis neglecta).
[Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1838, vol. i., p. 27; Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, pp. 272 and 294; and Brit. Mus. Cat., p. 24. My. Elliot, in his Monograph, identifies this with the species last described; but to me it appears very distinct from the latter.]

This is rather smaller than the last species, and is well distinguished by its grey colour. The type is in the British Museum, and was originally described by Dr. Gray as follows: "Grey; head and body marked with numerous small darker spots, spots of the lower part of the sides rather larger; belly white, with large blackish spots; tail quite half the length of the body, with a dark line along the upper surface, sides paler, with obscure indications of darker bands."

No dark streak on the cheek.
Habitat, Gambia.

(18.) The Servaline Cat (Felis servalina).
[Ogilby, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1839, p. 4; Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 395; and Catalogue of Carnivora of Brit. Mus., p. 24; Sclater, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1874, p. 495, plate 63. Mr. Elliot identifies this in his Monograph with the Serval, but in this I cannot at all agree with him.]

This animal is apparently of about the same size as F. neglecta, but is distinguished from it by its colour, which is yellow, fulvous above, and white beneath. The middle of the back is darker, with very numerous small black spots, spots on sides rather larger, on the belly much larger; tail short, fulvous, with five or six imperfect black rings, and a pale tip. No cheek streaks.

The type is said to be in the British Museum.
Habitat, Sierra Leone.

(19.) The Ocelot (F. pardalis).
[Described and figured in Elliot's Monograph. He considers the here enumerated varieties to be merely varieties. See also Godman and Salvin's Biologia, Mammalia, p. 60.]

8. This beautiful cat, always handsomely marked, is either one of several closely allied species, or else, as is more probable, is subject to much variation as to coloration and the intensity of its markings. Besides the typical form, Dr. Gray has distinguished four marked varieties (or species) which he has named F. grisea, F. melanura, F. picta and F. pardoides, and certainly these forms are not only very different when adult, but, as Dr. Gray says, their characters are to a certain extent permanent, the young, in some instances at least, being like their parents, so that they are at least varieties which "breed true."

The ground colour of the ocelot may be tawny yellow or reddish grey. It is always marked with black spots, which are aggregated in chain-like streaks and blotches, generally forming elongated spots, each with a black border, enclosing an area which is rather darker than is the general ground colour. The head and limbs bear small black spots, and there are two black stripes over each cheek and one or two transverse dark bands within each fore-leg. The tail tends to be ringed, and the ventral parts of the trunk and limbs are whitish.

Length from snout to tail-root ranges from twenty-six to thirty-three inches; that of the tail varies from eleven to fifteen inches. The pupil contracts into a vertical slit. The orbit is not enclosed by bone. The creature is a ready climber, and is said to be exceedingly bloodthirsty.

The variety called F. grisea [Gray, Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., vol. x., p. 260, 1842; and Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 403.] is of a grey colour, even somewhat whitish at the sides; that named F. picta, [Gray,.l.c.] differs from the typical F. pardalis in its less intense coloration, the less degree of approximation of its stripes and the less amount of difference which exists between the general ground colour and the parts enclosed by the black borders of the spots and markings. The variety termed F. pardoides [Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 403.] is very like the variety F. grisea, but the spots affect less the form of rings upon the flanks, while the stripes on the neck are less distinct as well as shorter, the ground colour. of the neck being redder. ‘There are also more or less spots in the middle of the back. It differs from the typical F pardalis by its grey colour. This greyness in F. pardoides and F. grisea is not the effect of age, since it already exists in the kittens. F. pardoides measures about twenty-five inches from snout to tail-root, and the tail is thirteen inches long.

Very different from all the foregoing, as well as from the typical F. pardalis, is the variety which has been named F. melanura.[ Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, pp. 270 and 403.] Its colours are most intense. The ground colour being bright fulvous, and the black markings exceedingly numerous and deep, while the white parts stand out in strung contrast to the rest.

The ocelot ranges from Arkansas to Paraguay, and according to Mr. Elliot, even to Patagonia.

Certain other smaller and beautifully-spotted American cats are also difficult to distinguish one from another; but it seems to me there are probably three distinct kinds, which are represented in our National collection, and are named F. tigrina, F. guigna, and F. pardinoides.

(20.) The Margay (Felis tigrina).
[¢ See Biologia, Mammals, p. 61. Both Messrs. Alston and Elliot have agreed in considering that the three varieties are merely varieties; having come to this conclusion after together examining the fine series of specimens in the museum at Paris as well as in the British Museum. I adopt their decision, though I do not feel sure that the F. tigrina and F. mitis of the British Museum, may not be distinct species. ]

The animal thus named must be another very variable species, since what I believe to be but different varieties have been described as three distinct species, under the names of F. tigrina, F. mitis (the Chati), and F. macroura. The F. tigrina of the British Museum, [Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 404.] has rather harsh fur, of a dull grizzled colour, varied with black spots and rings. The tail is marked with small black spots, often confluent, but not forming continuous rings. There are three transverse black stripes on the cheek. The head and body together measure a little over twenty-four inches, and the tail is about eleven inches long.

The specimens named F. mitis and F. macroura [Gray, 2., p. 271.] have soft, bright, fulvous fur, with black spots of variable size, but which are not united in chains. The black-bordered patches sometimes have a pale centre.

The length of the head and body is nearly twenty-seven inches, that of the tail from fourteen to nineteen inches. The animal ranges from Mexico to Paraguay, in warm lowlands and well-wooded regions.

An American variety of cat has been described by Hensel as Felis guttula. [Abhand. Akad. Berlin, 1872, p. 73.] The account given does not make it clear that it is a distinct species. The author's description is as follows: "Skull long and narrow, corresponding with that of F. macroura, the facial part is smaller compared with the brain-case. Especially striking is the height of the skull between the orbits. "Ground colour grey yellow; two dark stripes on the head, and a dark stripe from each eye to the forehead; four stripes, tolerably broad, run side by side together on the neck to the shoulder. The sides of the neck are furnished with some dark marks, and some dark brown or black spots are scattered over the whole fur. In the middle of the back (where the ground colour is darkest) there are narrow more or less short stripes, which sometimes run one into the other, forming longer stripes. On the flanks the spots are larger and have a lighter centre, which, anteriorly, so approaches the ground colour as to change the spots into rings. The limbs are much spotted externally. The under parts are lighter (or whitish) and less spotted. There is a white spot outside the external ear. Tail reaching forwards to the arm, with ten or eleven rings and a black tip. Size that of the domestic cat."
Habitat, South Brazil - Rio Grande do Sul.

(21.) Geoffroy's Cat (Felis guigna).
[Molina, Saggio sulla storia naturale del Chili, i. Ausgb., p. 295. See Elliot's Monograph, under the name Felis Geoffroyi. See also a paper by Dr. Philippi, in Wiegmann's Archiv, 1873, p. 8, plate 3, where two views of an immature skull are given.]

The F. guigna of the British Museum was described by Dr.Gray [Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, pp. 267 and 405, plate 25; and Catalogue of Carnivora, p. 14.] by the name Pardalina Warwickii, under the impression that it came from India, but was recognized by Dr. Sclater [Pro. Zool. Soc., 1870, p. 706; and 1872, p. 203] as being the South American Cat described by D'Orbigny. [D'Orbigny's Voyage dans l' Amérique Méridionale, Mammutres, p. 21, plate 14.] The latter animal is indeed so like the F. guigna of our National collection that I cannot help identifying them as specifically the same, although D'Orbigny's animal is not so much spotted.

It may be described as follows: "Fur short, dusky whitish brown; chin, streak on cheek, and throat white; chest and underside paler, black-spotted; crown and nape with four, cheek with two, and between the withers one black streak; the four feet and body covered with very numerous, equidistant, nearly equal-sized small black spots; throat, chest, upper part of the inside and outside of fore and hind-legs black- banded; tail spotted at the lower half, ringed at the end, with a black tip; ears black, with a large white spot."

The skull is very short and broad, and convex above at the muzzle. Orbits not completely enclosed; first upper premolar very small.
It inhabits Paraguay and Chili.

(22.) The Ocelot-Like Cat (Felis pardinoides).
[This animal is identified by Mr. Elliot with that last described, though he allows them to be good "varieties." It appears to me that they should provisionally at least be held as distinct.]

This animal was also first described by Dr. Gray under the mistaken supposition that it came from India.[ Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 400.] The type of the species came from the Zoological Society's collection, with the reputation of an Indian origin. A second specimen, however, certainly received from Bogota, placed its real geographical region beyond doubt. It is very like F. guigna, but the spots are much larger and in the form of dark blotches, each with a black border. The two skins differ somewhat, the type of the species being greyer than the skin subsequently received. The skulls also are different, but not more so than difference of age may suffice to account for, the typical specimen being immature.

The length of the head and body is about eighteen inches, that of the tail being ten inches.
As has been said, it comes from Bogota.

(23.) The Yaguarondi (Felis Yaguarondi).
[See Biologia, Mammals, p. 63]

The Yaguarondi is one of the few unspotted cats, like the lion and puma. It has a very long tail and a long body, in proportion to the limbs, and its head is long and low. It is of a blackish or brownish grey, with individual variations, both greyish and reddish specimens being found in the same locality. Each hair being blackish grey at the root, then black and greyish again towards the point. The female is said to be of a lighter, brighter colour than the male. The animal is thirty inches from snout to tail, while the tail is twenty-five inches long. The pupil is said to be round.

The skull is elongated and somewhat flattened above, but what is exceedingly characteristic of the species is the remarkable way in which the nose is, as it were, pinched in laterally.
It inhabits Brazil, Guiana and Paraguay, and North-eastern Mexico.

(24.) The Eyra (Felis Eyra).
[Biologia, Mammals, p. 64.]

This is the most remarkable of all the cats, from the extreme length of its body in comparison to that of its limbs - a condition which gives it somewhat the appearance of a large weasel. It is also one of the few unspotted cats. The fur is soft, of a uniform reddish-yellow or chestnut colour, with a whitish spot on each side of the upper lip. It is about the size of the domestic cat, save that its legs are much shorter than that animal's. The pupil is round. [This has been kindly ascertained for me by Mr. A. D. Bartlett, of the Zoological Society.]

The skull is much elongated and greatly flattened above. The nose is a little pinched in laterally. The first upper premolar is present. The specimen in the Zoological Gardens was very gentle, but another one was quite untameable.

It inhabits Brazil, Guiana and Paraguay, and though rare northwards of Panama, extends upwards to the Rio del Norte between Mexico and Texas.

(25.) The Colocollo (Felis colocollo).
[Hamilton Smith in Griffith's Animal Kingdom, vol. ii., p. 479 (with a figure); F. Cuvier's Mammiferes, iii.; F. Strig lata, Wagner's Supplement to Schreber's Saugth., vol. ii., p. 546. See also a paper by Dr. R. A. Philippi, in Wiegmann's Archiv, 1873, vol. i, p. 8, plate 3, Figs. 1 and 2.]

This animal is about the size of the common cat or somewhat larger. It is of a whitish-grey colour, with elongated black marks on the back and sides, and with a black mark extending from the eye to the jaw. The tail is said to be semi-annulated and the lower parts of the limbs to be of a dark grey hue. The skull has the orbits not enclosed by bone.

There is no first upper premolar. The upper true molar is visible when the skull is seen in profile. The-infra-orbital foramen is large. The skull is much elongated and depressed. The muzzle produced, and the upper surface of the snout markedly concave when the skull is looked at in profile. When the skull is seen from above, the prominence of the upper jaw causes part of the anterior palatine foramina to be distinctly visible. The nasals narrow very gradually backwards, and do not extend so far backwards as do the nasal processes of the maxillae.

The animal inhabits Guiana and Chili, and doubtless intermediate countries also.

(26.) THE Rusty-spotted Cat (Felis rubiginosa).
[See Mr. Elliot's Monograph, from which the above figure has been taken. It is the F. rubiginosa of Jerdon's Mammals of British India, p. 108; and the Viverriceps rubiginosa of Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 269; and Catalogue of Carnivora, p. 18.]

9. This pretty little cat is said by Mr. Jerdon to frequent brushwood and grass growing in the dry beds of tanks, as well as the jungle. Its colour is greenish-grey, with a faint rufous tinge; beneath and inside of limbs white; a white superciliary streak extending on the side of the nose; two dark face streaks; top of head and nape with four narrow dark brown stripes, becoming interrupted posteriorly, and passing into a series of rusty-coloured marks, which on the back, are in the form of streaks, but are roundish on the sides of the body. Tail short, more rufous than the body, and uniform in colour, or very indistinctly spotted, the tip not dark; the lower surface and inside of the limbs with large dark brown spots; feet rufous-grey above, black on the soles; ears small; whiskers long, white; fur short and very soft. It is a very small animal, the length of the head and body being only sixteen or eighteen inches, and that of the tail about ten inches. Iti s a well marked species.

The skull is elongated, though its facial part is short. The orbit is nearly encircled by bone, and the mastoid process is rather prominent. The nasal bones are long and narrow, extending backwards beyond the adjacent parts of the maxillae. The first upper premolar is wanting.

It is said to inhabit both Madras and Ceylon.

A cat has been described by M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards under the name of F. chinensis, and a similarly named specimen, which agrees with the description referred to, is in the National collection. The latter is the type of a species named F. chinensie by Dr. Gray.

(27.) The Chinese Cat (Felis chinensis).
[Pro. Zool. Soc., 1870, p. 629; and Catalogue of Carnivora, p. 27. Also A. Milne-Edwards, Recherches des Mammiferes, p. 216, plate 31. fig. 2.]

This animal presents the following characters:-
General colour pale yellowish grey, interrupted by a multitude of more or less dark brown spots. Two narrow, elongated white marks commence beside the nose and extend on to the forehead, and another, in each zygomatic region, extends back on the neck beyond the angle of the jaw, with a deep red-brown border above and below. Muzzle, lower parts of cheeks and chin white, except part of the upper lip, which is yellow and striped. Fine, blackish stripes on the head, all but the middle one extending to the beginning of the back. Chest whitish, with reddish-brown spots, which tend to form transverse bands like a series of incomplete collars. The spots form elongated markings along the back and sides; sometimes the spots of the sides form leopard-like rosettes, but sometimes they do not do so.

Length of head and body about twenty-five inches. Length of tail, twelve inches. The orbits are nearly enclosed by the post-frontal processes. The nasals extend backwards about. as far as do the maxilla. The first premolar falls early.

The animal is found near Canton and in Formosa.

(28.) The Small Cat (Felis minuta).
[Gray, Cat. of Carnivora, p. 26.]

This animal is very like that last described, but it is smaller, and the tail is much shorter. The spots also are less rounded and more in the form of short stripes. The orbits are nearly enclosed by bone, as in F. chinensis, but the nasals extend backwards decidedly beyond the hinder ends of the adjacent parts of the maxilla. Length of the head and body, twenty-three inches. Length of the tail, six and a half inches.

This animal inhabits the Indian Archipelago, including Borneo and at least the island of Zebu in the Philippine group of islands.

The F. Herschelii of Gray [Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. Catalogue, p. 28.] appears to be but a light-coloured variety of F. minuta.

(29.) Jerdon's Cat (Felis Jerdoni).
[The specimen in the British Museum which is thus named, was so named orally by Mr. Blyth, but was not described till Dr. Gray described it in the Zool. Soc, 1867, p- 401; and Catalogue, p. 28. Mr. Elliot identifies this with his F. rubiginosa, but the two appear to me to be distinct.]

This animal is very like F. chinensis and F. minuta, but it is smaller, and the spots which mark it are darker and more distinct, and they do not so distinctly form stripes on the shoulders. The fur is grey, with a few small, distinct black spots. The spots on the sides of the body and of the limbs are roundish; those of central part of back are linear and rarely confluent. Tail and feet dark grey brown, scarcely spotted; chin and under parts, white with black spots. Length of head and body, seventeen and a half inches. Length of tail, five and a half inches.

(30.) The Javan Cat (Felis javanensis).
[Gray, Catalogue of Carnivora, p. 26]

This form is added doubtfully as a distinct species. It is represented in the British Museum by a specimen of small size and of a greyish-brown colour with round spots, of a reddish-brown tint, on the sides, and with blackish longitudinal streaks along the back. There are two stripes on the cheek. Beneath, it is whitish, with largish, brown spots. Length of the head and body, twenty-two inches. Length of the tail, seven and a half inches.

(31.) The Bushy-Tailed Red-spotted Cat (Felis euptilura).
[Elliot, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1871, p. 760, plate 76. It is also described and figured in his Monograph.]

This species was first described by Mr. Elliot from a very imperfect skin, which is the type of the species, and is preserved in the British Museum [No, 52. 3. 19. 1. ]. There is also there preserved a specimen from Shanghae, which closely resembles the skin described by Mr. Elliot and is similarly named. The following is Mr. Elliot's description: -

"Ground-colour of the body light brownish-yellow, strongly mixed with grey, covered with reddish-brown spots rather oblong in shape, darkest and most conspicuous on the hind quarters; head grey, with a white line under the eyes and on' the side next to the nose; two dark brown stripes on the centre, commencing at the tip of the nose, and one on each side, beginning at the eye, pass over the top of the head, and down the back of the neck to the shoulders; a dark-red stripe runs from the corner of the eye, across the cheek to the base of the ear; and another, rather lighter in colour, starting below the eye, passes across the cheek and curves back under the throat. The centre of the back is much darker than the sides, with spots of dark brown. Under lip white, as is also the throat and under parts. Across the upper part of the breast are four broken bands of foxy red; belly covered with large brown spots, becoming rufous between the hind legs. Inner side of hind legs buff, with cross bands of foxy-red, and covered with small reddish spots to the toes. Tail thick, rather short, bushy, darker than the body, with several incomplete broken rings of blackish brown. Inside of ear buff, behind black."

Size about that of the common cat. The orbits are nearly enclosed by bone. The nasal bones extend back decidedly beyond the nasal processes of the maxillae. The nasal region is much pinched laterally. There is a small upper front premolar.

(32.) The Small-Eared Cat (Felis microtis).
[Alphonse Milne-Edwards. Recherches p- 221, plates 31a and 31b, Fig. 1. See also the right-hand figure in Mr. Elliot's plate of F. euptilura. Mr. Elliot identifies this species with his F. euptilura. The figures, however, appear to me very different, and I think it best to keep it distinct, at least provisionally.]

This cat is very like F. chinensis, but differs from it by the small size of its ears. The infra-orbital foramen is, moreover, divided. The hair is long, soft, and very abundant. The general colour is that of F. chinensis, but the spots are redder and more confused; the markings of the zygomatic region are less distinct, as are those on the head and neck. The ears have each two white spots behind, separated by a vertical blackish-brown band, while in F. chinensis the ears are black and have but a single white spot. The tail is not distinctly spotted. It inhabits the neighbourhood of Pekin, and is also found in Mongolia.

(33.) The Large-Eared Cat (Felis megalotis).
[Muller, Vertiand.. over de Natuurlijke Geschiedenis Zool., Leyden, 1839-1844, Part I.; Over de Zoogdiernen van den Indischen Archipel., by Salomon Muller, p. 54.]

This animal appears to be only known by Muller's description. He tells us: - "This new species is of the size of Felis minuta; it has, however, much longer and more projecting ears and a much larger tail, which is not round but more or less flattened. The general colour is yellowish, the back reddish-yellow, and the under parts more of an isabella colour The hairs of the head, neck, shoulders, hind legs and tail are annulated with black rings, which results in giving a marbled appearance to the body There are some transverse black stripes on the hind legs, and some reddish-yellow and black stripes on the fore legs. The claws are light yellow. A dark stripe proceeds from beneath the eyes to the ears, where it breaks up into narrower stripes. The hairs of the tail are longest at each side, so as to form a lateral fringe, which gives the tail its flattened appearance. The tail is partly ringed in an indistinct manner. The ears are bluish-white within. The iris is orange-yellow.

(34.) The Flat-Headed Cat (Felis planiceps).
[See Mr. Elliot's Monograph, from which the above figure was, by permission, copied. It is the Viverriceps planiceps of Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc.. 1867, p. 269; and Catalogue of Carnivora, p. 17. It is the F. planiceps of Vigors and Horsfield, who first described and figured it in the Zoological Journal, vol, iii., p. 449, plate 2.]

This very peculiar and exceptional cat is one-coloured, with a long body and short legs and tail. It may be thus described: Fur thick, soft, and long. Top of head dark reddish-brown. Two yellow lines extend upwards (one on each side) from between the eyes to near the ears; body dark brown, darkest on the back, every hair tipped with white, a silvery-grey appearance being thereby given to the cat. Face beneath the eye light reddish, with two narrow dark lines across the cheeks to beneath the ears. Throat, breast, and belly white, the latter spotted and marked with rufous. Inside of legs rufous-brown, growing light towards the feet. Tail rather short and thickly furred and of a reddish-brown colour above, beneath yellowish-brown. It is about the size of a domestic cat. Length of head and body from twenty-one to twenty-four inches. Of tail, from six to eight inches.

The skull is elongated and the orbits are completely enclosed by bone, but its most remarkable character is the large size of the first premolars both above and below. The first upper premolar is two-rooted and largely developed, its crown being sometimes actually longer from above downwards than is the sectorial tooth. The first lower premolar is also as vertically extended asis the second. This structure would accord with a fish-catching habit, like that which is attributed to Felis viverrina.
Dr. Gray gives Malacca, Sumatra, and Borneo as the habitat of this species.

(35.) The Bornean Bay Cat (Felis Badia).
[Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1874, p. 322, plate 49.]

This unspotted and therefore exceptional small species of cat was first made known by Dr. Gray from a very imperfect skin (the type of the species) which is now in the British Museum. It is thus described: "Fur of a bright chestnut colour, rather paler beneath, the limbs and the tail being rather paler and redder. The tail is elongate, tapering at the end, with a white central streak occupying the hinder half of the lower side, gradually becoming wider and of a purer white towards the tip, which has a small black spot at its upper end. The ears are rounded, covered with short blackish-brown fur at the outer side, pale brown within, and with a very narrow pale margin. The sides of the upper lip, a small spot on the front angle, and the edge of the upper eyelid pale brown. The chin, edge of the under jaw, and gullet whitish."

The orbits are nearly encircled by bone, and there is a good-sized pterygoid fossa. Unlike F. planiceps, this cat has its first upper premolar of but small size and with a single root.
Habitat: Sarawak, Borneo.

(36.) The Egyptian Cat (Felis caligata).
[Gray, Brit. Mus: Cat.,.p. 29; Felis maniculata, Ruppell, Zool. Atlas, i. t. 19; Felis Chaus, Ruppell, Zool.
Atlas, i. t. 140.]

10. This species varies from pale fulvous, to grey or pale yellowish, with darkish transverse markings on the legs and towards the end of the tail, and two transverse streaks on the cheeks. As has been said in the first chapter, this species is probably the main source of the domestic cat. According to Dr. Gray, "Many specimens of Felis caligata from Africa, like Felis domestica, F. indica, and F. torquata, and many other species, have the hinder part of the feet black; but this is not a permanent character; for some of the paler specimens of F. caligata have the hind feet paler than the back of the animal, and some of these have fs heels more or less brown or blackish on the outer edges." The tail is long.

Pale varieties of this cat seem to have been mistakenly described as identical with the jungle cat (Felis Chaus) of India, and also with the Indian, Felis torquata.

(37.) The Wild Cat (Felis catus) has been already sufficiently described in the first chapter.

(38.) The Indian Wild Cat (Felis torquata).
[F. Cuvier, Mammiferes; Felis inconspicua; Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 273; and Catalogue of Carnivora, p. 31.]

This cat has much resemblance to the European wild cat, but it is more fulvous and less striped, and is more slender in its build. Length of the body and head from sixteen to eighteen inches. Length of tail, ten to eleven inches.
Habitat: India.

(39.) The Common Jungle Cat (Felis Chaus). [Jerdon, Mammals of India, p. 111; F. (Lynchnus) erythrotis, Hodgson; F. Jacquemontii, Is. Geoffroy St Hilaire; Chaus Jacquemontii, Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 275, and Brit. Mus. Cat., p. 34; Chaus Catalonyx, Gray, Brit. Mus. Cat., p. 36. See also Elliot's Monograph.]

The common jungle-cat is of a yellowish-grey colour, more or less dark and unspotted, approaching to rufous on the sides of the neck and abdomen, where it unites with the lower parts; a dark stripe extends from the eyes to the muzzle. The ears are slightly tufted, rufous black externally, white internally. The limbs have two or three dark stripes internally, and they are occasionally faintly marked externally also. The tail is short, reaching to the heel, and more or less annulated with black - most so in the young. Length of head and body, twenty-six inches; of tail, nine to ten inches. Pupil, oblong erect. Skull with the orbits open behind, and with the upper premolar distinctly developed.

This cat ranges all over India, from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin and Ceylon, and from the sea level to 8000 feet elevation.

(40.) The Ornate Jungle Cat (Felis ornata).
[Gray, Illustrations of Indian Zoology and Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 401; Chaus ornatus, Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 275; and Brit. Mus. Cat., p. 35; F. torquata, Jerdon's Mammals of Brit. India, p. 110. See also Elliot's Monograph.]

This cat "is at once well known from all the other Indian species by the dimensions of the tail and the small size and equal distribution of the spots. In this respect it resembles the Hunting Leopard. The tail is somewhat like that of F. Chaus. The ears are slightly pencilled at the tips. The fur is short and of a pale whitish-brown. The spots form transverse bands on the legs. The belly has black spots like those of the sides." Length of head and body, nineteen inches; that of tail, eight inches. The skull has the orbits open behind, and the nasal bones are very long and slender. There is a distinct first upper premolar. It is said to breed rather freely with Indian domestic cats. [See Blyth, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1863, p. 184. The same is said to be the case with F. Chaus and F. rubiginosa.]
Habitat: desert regions of North-western India.

(41.) The Steppe Cat (Felis caudatus).
[ Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1874, p. 31, plates 6 and 7, under the name of Chaus caudatus.]

The following are the characters of this animal: Fur close, soft, pale yellowish, blackish brown at the base, with very numerous small irregular spots. The spots are smallest and roundest on the dorsal line, oblong on the sides, and forming interrupted lines on the shoulders and thighs, which are most distinct on the outside of the fore-legs, and especially forming four broad cross streaks on the front edge of the thighs; tail cylindrical, reaching to the ground, spotted at the upper part of the base, and with eight or nine narrow interrupted rings on the upper part of the remaining portion, with a black tip. Nose brown, with short hair. Forehead and cheeks hike the back, but with smaller spots, and without any distinct dark streaks from the back edge of the eye. The ears ovate, acute, pale brown externally, with a terminal pencil of blackish hairs, and whitish on the edge within. Chin, hinder parts of the upper lip, under parts of the head, throat, chest, belly, inside of legs, and hind feet whitish brown, the chin being whitest and the inside of the hind legs and feet darkest. There is a large blackish spot on the upper part of the inside of the fore legs, and two small cross streaks on the front edge of the inside of the thighs. The hinder part of the hind feet to the heel blackish. Length of body and head, twenty-three inches and a half; of tail, twelve inches and a half; height of shoulder, twelve inches. The orbits are incompletely encircled by bone. There is a small anterior upper premolar. The anterior lower premolar is large.
Habitat: Bokara.

(42.) Shaw's Cat (Felis Shawiana).
[Blandford, Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. xlv., part 2, p. 49.]

This cat appears to be distinguished from F. caudatus by its much shorter tail; from F. Chaus by being spotted throughout, and from F. ornata by its short tail, more rufous coloration, and distinct black spots on the abdomen. It is very different from F. euptilura, which has red spots on the sides and rufous bars across the breast. Length, from snout to root of tail, twentv-five inches; of tail, seven and eight inches. The skull is very long.

General colour pale greyish fulvous above, the back rather darker than the sides, underparts white; the body marked through- out with rather small black spots, which are largest on the abdomen, smaller and closer together on the shoulders and thighs, tending to form cross lines on the latter, and indistinct on the middle of the back; anterior portion of the face and muzzle whitish, cheek stripes of rusty-red and black hairs mixed. Ears rather more rufous outside, especially towards the tip, which is blackish-brown, and pointed, the hairs at the end scarcely lengthened, interior of ears white. There are some faint rufous spots at the sides of the neck. Breast very faintly rufous, with one narrow brownish band across. Inner sides of limbs mostly white, a black band inside the forearm, and a very black spot behind the tarsus. Apparently there are two black bands inside the thigh. Tail dusky above near the base, with five or six black bars above on the posterior half, none below, the dark bars close together towards the tip. Fur soft, moderately long; the hairs purplish-grey towards the base. Size, larger than the common cat, about equal to that of F. Chaus,
Habitat: Eastern Turkestan, Yarkand, and Kashgar.

(43.) The Manul (Felis Manul).
[Alph. Milne-Edwards, Recher. des Mam p. 225, plate 31c; Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 874; and Catalogue of Carnivora 33.]

This handsome animal is the wild cat of Thibet, Mongolia, and Siberia. It is smaller than the common cat, with very long, soft and abundant hair. It is of a pale whitish colour, varied by a slight black mark on the upper part of the legs and chest. The hairs are yellowish-grey at the base, then yellowish, with their points white. There are a few transverse dark bands on the loins, which are black, narrow, and rather far apart. A white streak, bordered by black above and below, passes obliquely downwards and backwards from behind the eye, and there is another black mark behind the ear. Length from snout to root of tail, twenty-one inches. Length of tail, ten inches.

The skull is remarkable for its breadth and the prominence of the interorbital region as compared with the nasal region. The nasal bones are very narrow for their hinder two-thirds, and then broaden out rather suddenly, forwards.
Habitat: Thibet to Siberia.

(44.) The Straw or Pampas Cat (Felis pajeros).
[Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 269; and Catalogue of Carnivora, p. 18. For the skull, see a paper by Dr. R. A. Philippi, in Wiegmann's Archiv, 1878 p. 8, plate 3, figs. 3 and 4.]

This animal is about the size of our wild cat, but is more robust in build, with a smaller head and a shorter tail. The hair is long, and the colour of the body is yellowish-grey, marked with transverse bands of yellow or brown, which run obliquely from the back to the flanks. Two patches descend from the eves over the cheeks, and meet beneath the throat. The animal is whitish beneath. The legs and tail are marked with dark bands. Length from snout to tail root, twenty-five inches; length of tail, twelve inches.

The skull has the snout remarkably short, and therefore is very convex above anteriorly when seen in profile. The nasal region is much pinched in laterally, and the nasals are very narrow in their hinder half. The zygomata are greatly arched outwards. The first upper premolar is wanting. The cusp of the first lower premolar is much prolonged. This animal appears to be a New- World form which represents as it were F. Manul of the Old World.
It inhabits the Pampas and Patagonia down to the Straits of Magellan.

(45.) The Northern Lynx (Felis lyncus).
[De Blainville, Osteog. Felis, plate 3.]

11. The lynxes are animals which present a markedly different aspect from that of other cats. Their legs are long and their tail is, with one exception (that of the caracal), very short. Their ears also. are tufted at the tip. The pupil is linear when contracted. The orbits are incompletely surrounded by bone. They have no tooth representing the common cat's first upper premolar, while that answering to its second upper premolar is largely developed. The intestines are also very short. [According to Professor Owen (Trans. Zool. Soc., vol. i., p. 131), they are only twice the length of the body, being relatively the shortest intestine known to exist in the Felidae. The hyoid is connected with the skull by a continuous chain of bones, as in the common cat. The ciliary folds of the eye are very long, and the retina, which is very thin, does not reach the meridian of the eyeball, Owen, Anat.of Vertebrates, iii., p. 252. ]

The lynxes thus form a little group apart, being structurally more separable from the bulk of the cats than are the lion, tiger, jaguar, puma, and leopard, which are separable from the mass of feline animals as the emphatically "large cats." Still the above given characters are variable in the cat group. In some cats, other than lynxes, the tail is short, and some have the ears more or less pencilled. Some, as we have seen, have long legs, and in many the first upper premolar is wanting. The lynxes therefore cannot be separated off as a nominally distinct group or "genus."

The lynxes are very variable in their colour and markings, and the northern lynx also varies greatly in the abundance of its hair, according to the season - the animal having a very different aspect in winter from that which it presents in summer. The northern lynxes are generally reckoned as forming two species, one belonging to the old world, F. borealis, and at least one species belonging to the new, F. canadensis. The American forms are also often described as alone constituting three species - namely, F. canadensis, F. rufa, and F. maculata. After a careful examination of the rich series of skins at the British Museum, I am, however, not only quite unable to regard the American varieties as anything more than varieties, but I am inclined to the opinion that there can be no real specific distinctness between the northern lynxes of the two hemispheres - their skulls as well as their skins being so much alike. [On this question Professor Alphonse Milne-Edwards has been so obliging as to send the following statement of his opinion: - "The study of the different kinds of lynx is a very difficult study. Whether there are several species in the northern hemisphere, or only races, is a question which I cannot answer. There are certainly distinct forms, but before ranking them as species it would be necessary to determine what variations are due to climate, season, age, sex, &c."]

A. The variety generally distinguished as F. borealis is of a reddish-grey colour, sometimes more or less spotted, sometimes very distinctly so - especially when young. Its winter dress is more grey in colour and is much longer and thicker than its summer coat. The fur of the cheeks is generally long, so much so as to form a pendent thick fringe on each side, but the extent of this development varies greatly. The pads of the feet are more or less overgrown with hair. It inhabits Northern Scandinavia, Russia, Northern Asia, and some of the mountainous districts of Central Europe. One was killed at Wurtemberg as late as 1846, and in 1822 one was killed in France at St. Julien Chapteril, in the department of the Haute Loire. This animal is said to attain the length of fifty inches, but I have seen none longer than about forty inches from snout to the root of the tail.

B. The variety known as F. canadensis, is, in colour, very like F. borealis, but all the specimens I have seen are smaller, being about thirty inches from snout to tail root, with a tail five inches long.

C. The variety named F. rufa is, as its name implies, of a reddish colour; its fur is shorter and less abundant than that of the variety named F. canadensis. [Biologia Centrali Americana, Mammals, p. 64.]

D. The variety called F. maculata is a very handsome one, its fur being ornamented with many spots; but skins exist which present every transitional condition between the long-haired spotted form known as F. maculata and the other American forms. This variety extends across the North American continent from the Rio Grande to Southern California, going at least as far south as Guanajuato, and probably extending to near the city of Mexico. [Biologia, 7. ¢., p. 65.] It is therefore an interesting kind, as being the most southern form of Lynx as yet known to exist. The F. maculata figured measures thirty-five inches from snout to tail root, and the tail is six inches long.

(46.) The Pardine Lynx (F. pardina).

This is the South European lynx. ‘The colour is rufous above, white beneath, with numerous rounded black spots over the body, the limbs, and the tail. It presents no noticeable difference as to size from F. lyncus. [There is a specimen in the British Museum which measures forty-one inches from snout to tail-root, with a tail seven inches long, and which is covered with black spots. It is labelled Lyncus lupulinus, and has been described by Dr. Gray (Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 276) as a new species. It was brought from the museum of the Zoological Society, and is represented as having come from Norway. But this representation was probably erroneous.]

At first I was disposed to regard this form as a mere variety of the northern lynx (the species thus becoming spotted in southern latitudes in the old world, just as it becomes spotted in the warmer regions of the new world), but an examination of the skulls inclines me to regard F. pardina as a really distinct species. When the skull is seen in profile it differs from the skulls of the varieties F. borealis, F. canadensis, F. rufa, and F. maculata, in that it appears much more raised and convex between the orbits, while the skulls of the four just named varieties are relatively flat. The nasals of F. pardina extend backwards beyond the nasal processes of the maxillae.

This species is found in Turkey, Greece, Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain. In Andalusia it is very often called Gato serval, an interesting indication of the African origin of part of the population, of that Province.

(47.) The Thibet Lynx (F. isabellina).
[This is the F. isabellina of Blythe. Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 276.]

This form is only ranked as a species provisionally and with much doubt. There is in the British Museum the mounted skin of a large lynx, which is uniformly of a very pale isabella colour. Length of head and body, forty-one inches. Length of tail, seven inches. Though so markedly different in colour it may be but a pale variety of F. lyncus.

(48.) The Caracal (Felis Caracal).
[Jerdon's Mammals of British India, p. 113. See also Elliot's Monograph and De Blainville's Osteographie, plate.]

The caracal is a well-known kind. Itis of a slender build, with long limbs and with a tail longer than in the other lynxes, reaching down to the animal's heels. The ears are three inches long. Dr. Scully has very kindly shown me the skins obtained by him in Central Asia, one of which at least is intermediate in coloration between F. lyncus and F. isabellina. It is of a uniform vinous, or bright fulvous brown colour above, and is paler, sometimes almost white, beneath. Itis quite or almost entirely unspotted, but some obscure spots are visible, in some specimens, on the flanks, belly, and inner surface of the limbs. The tail has a black tip. The pads of the feet are bald. The skull is rather convex between the orbits, as in F. pardina. Length of the head and body, twenty-six to thirty inches. Length of the tail, nine or ten inches.

This animal is found in North-western India and in Central India to the east coast; also in Thibet, Persia, Arabia, and throughout Africa.

(49.) The Common Cheetah or Hunting Leopard (Cynaelurus jubata).*
[Jerdon's Mammals of India, p. 114; Gueparda, Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc., 1867, p. 396; and Cat. Brit. Mus., p. 39: De Blainville, Osteog., Felis, plate 4 (skeleton).]

12. This cat differs much more from all the other cats than any other two cats differ one from another, and it therefore may be distinguished as constituting a nominally distinct group or "genus."

It has a short rounded head, with long, slender limbs and a long tail. Its ears are rounded, and not at all pencilled. It is a large animal, being four and a half feet long in head and body, and with a tail two and a half (or two and three-quarters) feet long. Its colour is bright rufous fawn, powdered with black spots. These are not like those of the leopard - arranged in rosettes, nor, as in the jaguar, in rings; neither do they run together into stripes or elongated patches, but are distinct, plain, round marks. The tail, however, is more or less ringed with black. The hair of the neck forms something of a mane, and that of the belly is long and light-coloured. A black stripe runs downwards from the inner angle of the eye to the margin of the upper lip near the angle of the mouth. Such are its colour and markings when adult. The young are covered with long soft hair of a dark-brown colour, very obscurely spotted. The head, the back of the neck, the back, and the upper surface of the tail, are pale brown. They have altogether a singularly different appearance from the adult.

The cheetah has the claws always more or less exposed, not being completely retractile as in the other cats, though it is furnished with the same kinds of ligaments that they have. The skull of the cheetah is also very different in shape from the skull of every other. cat - being very high in proportion to its length. The nasals are short, but not so short as in the ounce. There is more than one infra-orbital foramen on each side. The upper true molar is visible when the skull is seen in profile. The first upper premolar may be present or absent. The second premolar is very large, projecting downwards as much as does the sectorial. The upper sectorial differs from the corresponding tooth in all living cats, in that the inner cusp of that tooth is so rudimentary as to be almost wanting. The os hyoides is connected with the skull by a continuous chain of bones - as in the common cat.

The metacarpals and metatarsals are relatively long. The brain is considerably convoluted. [See Owen, Trans. Zool. Soc., vol. i., plate 20.] The corpus albicans is fairly divided into two corpora mammillaria, as in various other large cats. The pupil is round when contracted. [Of this I have been made aware through the kindness of Mr, A. D. Bartlett.]

The animal, as is well known, is employed for the chase, being taken to the hunting field in a cart, with a hood over its head. Mr. Jerdon has observed it, when let loose after the game, crouch along the ground, and seek out every inequality of surface to enable it to get unseen within proper distance of the antelope it was pursuing. Nevertheless it can run with a velocity as great as that of a well-mounted huntsman.

The cheetah is found at least in Western, Central, and part of Southern India, also in Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, and Africa, to near the Cape - certainly in both Senegal and Kordofan.

(50.) The Woolly Cheetah (Cynaelurus lanea).
[Pro. Zool. Soc., 1877, p. 532, plate 55. ]

This species has been recently described by Dr. Sclater, and appears to me to be distinct, though Mr. Elliot regards it as a mere variety of the common cheetah.

It differs from the latter in that it is thicker in the body, and has shorter and stouter limbs, and a much thicker tail. Its fur is also more woolly and dense, particularly on the ears, mane, and tail. The whole of the body is of a pale isabelline colour, rather paler on the belly and lower parts, but covered all over, including the belly, with roundish, dark, fulvous blotches. There are no traces of the black spots which are so conspicuous in the cheetah, nor of the characteristic black line between the mouth and the eye. [This line is, however, indicated on one side of the muzzle of a specimen now living in the Zoological Society's Gardens.]

The animal described came from Beaufort West, in Cape Colony.

18. With the last-named animal closes the list of LIVING CATS which it is thought may certainly, probably or very possibly, be considered as distinct "species." But while doubtless some new species may yet be discovered, yet it is, on the other hand, very probable that various forms here enumerated as very possibly or probably distinct may turn out to be mere varieties. The domestic cat is said to breed, in India, with F. Chaus and F. rubiginosa, and with other species in Ceylon and Africa, and the produce of some of these unions may themselves be fertile, and if so, the parents must be classed as belonging to one and the same species.

Casting a retrospective glance over the characters of the species described, we see that they differ but in few points. The uniformity of their structure, and even of their colour, is very remarkable. Some reddish or yellowish shade more or less modified by grey or brown, may be said to be their ground tint, marked generally with spots, often with stripes more or less black, with the under parts of the body whitish. Very generally there are two transverse stripes on the cheeks, and bars on the inside of the upper arms, with dark rings round the tail. There are no wild kinds of a pure white, nor is there any black or black-and-white species, while it is only a few kinds that are of a uniform tint and unspotted. The various kinds differ in size, in details of colour, in the length of the hair of certain parts, in the length of limbs compared with that of the body, and in the length of tail. They also differ as to the presence or absence of a tuft of hair on the ear-tips, the form of the skull, the enclosure or non-enclosure of the orbits by bone, the presence or absence of a first upper premolar, the relative size of the first and second premolars, the size of the internal cusp of the upper sectorial tooth, the more or less perfect retraction of the claws, and the shape of the contracted pupil.

Besides these characters, certain details of brain-structure, the condition of the anterior cornu of the os hyoides, the proximity of the stomach to the diaphragm, and the relative length of the intestine, are known to be different in different kinds, and no doubt various other such divergences exist which have not as yet been noted. Indeed, these latter anatomical details have been examined in too few forms to enable them to be yet made use of for purposes of classification.

The living cats being thus uniform in structure, one alone stands out as markedly distinct. This is the Cheetah - with its imperfectly-retractile claws and rudimentary cusp of the inner upper sectorial tooth, its high skull, long limbs and tail, and long metacarpals and metatarsals. In it also we saw that the first premolar may be present or absent, but that the second premolar is greatly developed vertically. Altogether this animal may, as has been said, rank as a group or genus by itself, the genus Cynaelurus, of which genus the above characters will form the definition. The Lynxes may also, as we have seen, be grouped by themselves, but they can hardly be reckoned as forming a distinct genus, although their special geographical range - being almost entirely creatures of the north temperate zone - is a noteworthy character.

All the other cats, however, must, without question, be included in a single genus, Felis.

It has been proposed to separate off, as a distinct genus, the cats with a vertical pupil and an orbit closed behind by bone, and to divide the round-pupilled cats into two genera according to the presence or absence of a first upper premolar. But these characters are too inconstant to serve such a purpose. We have seen that in the lion, even the upper true molar may not only be wanting, but the skull may show no trace of the tooth's past existence. But though the genus Felis must be thus extensive, the kinds contained within it may, for convenience, be considered as forming certain sets, distinguished by trivial marks. Thus the male lion, as normally developed, is distinguished from all other cats by its large mane, and the tiger by its vertical stripes and large size. A few, as the puma, jaguarondi, eyra, F. aurata, F. planiceps, F. badia, and J rutila, are separable from the rest by their uniform colour, but the great bulk of the cats are black-spotted animals A few also may be distinguished from the rest as rather "clouded" than "spotted." Such are the F. marmorata, F. macrocelis, F. megalotis, F. pajeros, F. caligata, F. Manul, F. neglecta, F. torquata, and F. catus. Almost every transition, however, exists between the spotted and the clouded cats, and some spotted forms occasionally have their spots very slightly marked, so that generic distinctions reposing on any such characters would be most futile.

Fifty species of living cats have been here enumerated as probably distinct, but it may turn out that certain of these are mere varieties, while some forms here deemed varieties may possibly prove to be really distinct species. It is the South American spotted cats - ocelots and margays - which are specially difficult thus to determine, and with regard to the smaller cats of China, and the adjacent parts of Asia, a similar, though perhaps less degree of difficulty occurs. It may be that F. Wagati, F. javanensis, F. microtis, and F. Jerdoni, will have to be merged in other species. Nevertheless it may be considered certain that upwards of forty well-marked species of cats now exist.

14. A much larger number of species have probably existed in the past, most of which have disappeared without leaving any yet discovered trace of their existence. Some, however, have left their remains in caves and superficial deposits, while others are made known to us by fossil remains. Indeed, a variety of fossil CATS NOW EXTINCT have been described, but as to many of them there is necessarily great uncertainty, since our whole knowledge of them reposes upon perhaps a lower jaw or one or two teeth. New fossil forms are now being so rapidly discovered in North America, that a complete enumeration of extinct species and a correct appreciation of their affinities must be a work of the more or less remote future. From what is already known, there can be no doubt but that some cat-like creatures, very different from any now living, once existed.

In the first place, a variety of fossils have been found which differ from existing cats in no way that would warrant their being placed in any other genus than Felis. Such are cats that have been found in the newer miocene or oldest pliocene of the Siwalik Hills. [E.g., the Felis cristata of Cautley and Falconer.]

Such, again, are others varying in size from a wild cat to a hyena, which have been found by Professor Gaudry at Pikermi in Greece, [See his "Animaux Fossiles de l'Attique," p. 116, plate 17.] and many of those which were before described by Professor De Blainville, [Osteographie, Felis.] and by M. Paul Gervais, [See his " Paléontologie Frangaise."] such as Felis Christolii (about the size of the Serval). The great cat known as the so-called "Cave Lion," Felis Spelea, [Owen, British Fossil Mammals, p. 161; and W. Boyd Dawkins in Paleont. Society, 1869, cxviii.] which lived in England in middle and late pleistocene times, is a well known extinct feline form. [As to this and other geological terms, see below, Chapter XIV. Para. 6.]

But besides these fossils, thus referrible to the existing genus, there are a variety of other remains which cannot be so referred.

15. Thus the remains of certain large cats have been found in pliocene and miocene, and even in eocene deposits, which differ from any existing cats in the enormous size of their upper canine teeth. The crowns of these teeth were laterally compressed and trenchant, with strong serrations along the margins - a character but feebly developed in any of the large living cats. Further, the mandible may be widened, from above downwards, the better to protect such enormously developed teeth. These tusks were indeed so large in some species that the jaws could not be opened beyond them so as to allow them to be used for biting. They could therefore only have been made use of as daggers, the animal striking with them with its mouth closed. Such forms must be grouped apart under a distinct generic name - the name Machaerodus. This genus had a very wide range, remains of it having been found in Europe, India, and America, both North and South. In some individuals of this genus, the first inferior premolar may have but one root, or may even be wanting altogether, thus carrying the reduction of lower teeth to an extreme. In the development of the upper canines the Machaerodonts are separated from the general condition of the cat tribe, not merely in that they were so immense, but that their length necessitated a peculiar mode of use, so that these creatures may be said to have initiated a new and very special modification of cat-existence.

16. Another fossil form of cat has been named Hoplophoneus [See Annals and Magazine of Natural History for January, 1880, p. 39; see also Bulletin of the United States Geological Survey, 7th Report, p. 509; and the Proceedings of the Acad. of Nat. Sc. of Philadelphia, July 8, 1879] by Professor Cope, who represents it as like Machaerodus in having the mandible vertically expanded and the upper canines more or less largely developed, but as differing from it and from all existing cats in that the inferior sectorial has a posterior lobe or "heel," while the superior sectorial has no anterior lobe, such as that which exists (Figs. 12 and 46) in all living cats. Its upper molar is largely developed (Fig. 185, B) and there is no inferior tubercular molar. It is a miocene genus, founded on fossils from the White Rivers of Nebraska and Colorado.

A long known fossil form, Pseudaelurus (of which several species have been described), is from the upper miocene of France and North America. [Gervais, Paleontologie Francaise, p. 232; see also Leidy's Mammals of Nebraska and Dakota in Journal of Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. vii., p. 52, plate 1, fig 8; see also Filhol, in Annales des Sciences Geologiques, vol. vii., p. 158. The Felis quadridentata of De Blainville belongs to this genus.] This animal had an additional lower premolar, so that there were three premolars and one sectorial molar in the lower jaw. The lower sectorial has but a rudimentary heel.

17. Another miocene form (as large as the jaguar) has also been described by Professor Cope, under the name Nimravus. It is from the vicinity of the White River, Oregon. It is described by its discoverer as having the same form of upper and lower sectorial as Hoplophoneus, but as differing from the latter in that it has an inferior tubercular molar. The heel to the lower sectorial is large. [Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., l.c. and Pro. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philadelphia, l.c.] The upper canine is very straight and dagger-like, and the alveolar border between it and the second premolar is singularly arched.

A very interesting form, called Dinictis, has been found in the "mauvaise terre" of Nebraska, which is certainly miocene if not, as some geologists think, eocene. [See Leidy's Mammals of Nebraska and Dakota, Journal of the Academy of Nat. Sc. of Philadelphia, p. 64, plate 5, Fig.1-4. The genus of Aelurogale of Filhol seems to be really the same as Dinictis.] It was as large as the Northern lynx. In this kind the upper sectorial has no anterior lobe, while the lower sectorial has a very large bifid posterior lobe or heel. The mandible also is somewhat widened anteriorly; but the most interesting character is the presence of a small tubercular molar in the lower jaw, together with three premolars in front of the sectorial, so that there are three premolars and two molars on each side.

Another kind has been described by M. Filhol as Proaelurus. [See Annales des Sciences Geologiques, vol. x., p. 192, plate 27, figs. 5, 6, 8-13, and plate 26, figs. 2-11; and in the Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes, section des Sc. Nat., Vol. xix., 1879, pp. 192-20.] It has one tubercular molar above and below, with teeth very feline in form. The shape of the skull, however, is not feline, and the present author is disposed to regard it rather as a creature of the weasel kind - an opinion in which he is supported by the concurrence of Professor Gaudry. It is only therefore here noticed among cat remains, [It appears to have had an ali-sphenoid canal, and M. Filhol regards it as perhaps allied to Cryptoprocta. As to these matters, see the chapter on the Cat's place in Nature] because Professor Cope appears to regard it as a primeval cat, and it certainly does resemble the cats in the shape of the sectorial teeth, the upper one of which has the internal cusp - which, however, we have seen to be wanting in the living Cynaelurus.

18. A very remarkable miocene fossil, which seems really to have been a kind of primeval cat, is the genus Archaelurus of Professor Cope. [The American Naturalist for December, 1879, p. 798a.] This has the usual number of incisors and canines, but has four premolars and a tubercular molar in the upper jaw, and three premolars and two molars in the lower jaw. Its feet are very slender. The single species of the new genus is described as follows: -

"Mandible, with the anterior face of the symphysis, separated from the lateral face by an angle which is not produced downwards. Superior sectorial without anterior lobe; [The upper sectorial appears to me however to have a very large, though little prominent, anterior lobe.] inferior sectorial with a heel. General structure of the jaws, weak; superior canine, small, little compressed, with an acute posterior edge which is not serrulate; first premolar in each jaw, one rooted; second inferior premolar, large; sectorials large; diastemata very short; alveolar border below the inferior sectorial and tubercular teeth everted, forming a large osseous callus, which has a free inferior and posterior margin, the latter rising into the base of the coronoid processes; zygomata slender; post-orbital processes little prominent; front wide, convex transversely. About the size of the panther."

This is certainly the most exceptional and uncatlike of all feline skulls.

19. Yet another miocene genus has been described by Professor Cope. [See the American Naturalist for February, 1880, p. 143, and for December, 1879, p. 798b.] It is named Pogonodon, and its skull is about one-sixth smaller than that of the tiger. "The canine is large and compressed, as in Machaerodus, and has serrulate anterior and posterior cutting edges." The symphysis is much widened to protect the canines. It differs from the Machaerodonts in having an additional inferior premolar tooth. The skull of this animal is singularly elongated, and there are three premolars in the lower jaw, while the width of the diastema between the upper canine and the first premolar (which is in place) is such as to seem as if another small premolar may have existed.

A very curious and exceptional eocene form of cat has been named Eusmilus. [By M. Gervais in the 2nd part of his Zoologie et Paleontologic Generales, 1876, pp. 53 and 54, plate 12. See also Filhol, Recherches sur les Phosphorites de Quercy, Ann. des Se. Geologiques, vol. viii., 1877, p. 821, and vol. vii., 1876, p. 158, plate 28.] It differs from all other known felines in having only four incisors in the lower jaw, and a pair of small canines separated by a very long diastema from the next teeth, which consist only of one premolar and one sectorial true molar. The lower jaw is enormously widened towards its symphysis to protect the large upper canines. It represents the characters of a flesh-eating, predacious animal of the cat-kind, carried out to an extreme degree. Professor Cope considers Eusmilus as forming the culminating development of the Machaerodont type of structure (Fig. 190).

20. A genus named Aelurodon, has been founded by Professor Leidy on an upper sectorial tooth found by Dr. Hayden at the Loup River, Nebraska. [Journal of the Acad. of Nat. Sc. of Philadelphia; Mammals of Nebraska, p. 68, plate 1, figs. 13 and 14.] It closely resembles the corresponding tooth of the cheetah in the abortion of the internal cusp.

A genus termed Limnofelis has been instituted to designate an extinct form which was as large as the lion. [American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. iv., August, 1872. See also Silliman's Journal, 3rd series, vol. iv., 1872, p. 202.] Certain portions of the skull and of the mandible, with the lower sectorial, have been more or less preserved. The description, however, as yet published is too incomplete to admit of its place in the cat series - supposing that it really has a place there - being determined.

The name Trucifelis [By Professor Leidy, l. c., plate 28] has also been imposed on an upper sectorial tooth, which is more like a cat's milk sectorial tooth than it is like the permanent sectorial. It cannot therefore as yet, any more than Limnofelis, be admitted as a recognised extinct member of the a cat group of animals.

Our knowledge of the kinds which have been reckoned as distinct species (i.e., of the species of the various fossil genera) is too fragmentary to admit of their enumeration, alongside of existing kinds, as of equal value. Some four species of Dinictis, five of Pseudaelurus, three or four of Hoplophoneus, two of Pogonodon and two of Nimravus, and at least eleven of Machaerodus have been described.

It is not possible to arrange the extinct and existing genera in one series, but if the cheetah (Cynaelurus) and Aelurodon be left out, the rest may perhaps be arranged on either side of Felis (according to their affinities to it and to each other) in the following order: - 1, Archaelurus. 2, Dinictis. 3, Nimravus. 4, Pseudaelurus. 5, Felis. 6, Hoplophoneus. 7, Pogonodon. 8, Machaerodus. 9, Eusmilus.

Of existing cats, it is the clouded tiger (F. macrocelis) which most resembles Machaerodus, not only by its very long upper canines, but also by the shape of its skull. Fels planiceps, with its large upper premolar, shows a certain affinity towards fossil forms which have more developed premolar teeth than have any of the existing cats. As to the fossil cats, in addition to the structural facts already mentioned, it is important to note that Archaelurus, Dinictis, Nimravus, Pogonodon, and Hoplophoneus agree in differing from all existing cats (and from other fossil cats, so far as has been yet ascertained) in that the carotid and condyloid foramina open separately from the foramen lacerum posterius, and in that the ali-sphenoid develops a lamina of bone to embrace the external carotid artery, the aperture left for the artery forming what is called an ali-sphenoid canal. In these respects, however, Machaerodus smilodon resembles existing cats.

[These facts are mentioned by Professor Cope (see "American' Naturalist," December, 1880, pp. 834 and 835) in a paper which has only reached my hands as these pages are passing through the press. On account of the differences in the cranial foramina, Professor Cope divides the cats into two families: I. Felidae; II. Nimravidae. But the conditions in this respect presented by Pseudaelurus and Eusmilus have not yet been described. Moreover, while disposed to admit the claim of Archaelurus to rank as a distinct sub-family did it stand alone, it seems to me that Dinictis, Nimravus, Pogonodon, and Hoplophoneus go far to bridge over the differences between it and the other cats, and I cannot regard the two last-named genera, as deserving to be ranked in a sub-family distinct from the bulk of the Felidae. How exceptional is not Otocyon amongst the Canidae!]

It is abundantly evident that the differences between any of the species which now live are very small compared with those which separate such forms as Archaelurus and Eusmilus from existing species or from one another. Itis the two last-mentioned genera, together with the sabre-toothed Machaerodonts, which exhibit to us the most extreme and divergent structures as yet discovered, amongst those various widely spread, or long existing, forms of animal life which can make a valid claim to be considered as belonging to the great feline group - to be, in fact, some amongst the various "kinds of cats."

CHAPTER XIII. THE CAT'S PLACE IN NATURE.

1. Nothing can be understood by itself. All our knowledge consists of apprehensions which have been acquired by comparing and contrasting one thing with another; and the more we know of any object, the greater is the number of relations we are able to affirm to exist between it and other objects. To fully understand any living creature, then, we should understand, as far as we can, the various relations in which it stands to all other living creatures. More than this, we should also understand its relations with that part of the creation which is devoid of life - in short, we should understand "its place in nature."

But the reader may deem such an inquiry superfluous as regards the animal which we have elected to study; for any.one who is asked, "What is a cat?" will at once reply "A beast of a certain kind which preys on other animals;" and if again asked " What is meant by a beast?" will probably say, "a living four-footed animal." If, however, the inquiry be pressed further, and precise meanings of "living creature," "animal," "beast," and "beast of prey," be demanded, the unsatisfactoriness of mere vague, popular conceptions will be plainly shown. We must then endeavour to obtain a full, clear, and precise knowledge of what is, or should be, meant by the above terms, so that we may be able to answer the question, "What is a cat?" with accuracy, and with a sufficient comprehension of the expressions employed in so answering. We must know "the why and the wherefore" of the terms of our answer.

2. Now, in the first place, we have seen that the body of the cat is bounded on all sides by curved lines and surfaces. Secondly, we have recognised that its body consists of different organs and tissues, and that wherever we may cut through it, we come upon parts which differ one from another - its body, therefore, is anything but homogeneous. A third fact about the cat's body concerns its chemical composition. We have seen that a great uniformity exists in this respect, and that all the main portions of it - its flesh, its nerves, its blood, &c. - are reducible to oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen, of which (with the addition of a minute quantity of a few other elements) the whole cat may be said to consist. We have also seen that these chemical elements are built up into organic substances of very complex nature (the various albuminous substances} which make up its flesh and blood, its nerves, &c.

So much for facts of structure. As regards function, there are several of the cat's activities to which attention must here be redirected. The kitten grows, and the adult cat continually uses up and replaces, in the wear and tear of life, different parts of its substance. Both these kinds of "growth" take place, as we have seen, not upon the surface of the body - internal or external - but in the very inmost substance or parenchyma of that body, by a process of "intussusception."

But growth needs the presence of certain conditions without which it cannot take place, because life itself cannot be maintained without them. The cat, like ourselves, can endure considerable changes of temperature, but there are temperatures which it cannot long endure and live - such as much below 32 degrees Fahr. on the one hand, or near 212 degrees Fahr. on the other. Again, moisture is a necessity to it, for a very large part of its body consists of water, and in a perfectly dry atmosphere its existence would soon come to an end. Besides these conditions, the process of intussusception is not only one which the cat can carry on, but one which it must carry on if it would continue to exist - the taking in of food is a positive necessity for such existence. But this food, as we have seen, is partly gaseous, and the animal does not take in one gas at its lungs without at the same time giving forth another in its place. There is going on, in fact, a process of "gaseous interchange," and without the continuance of such a process the cat could not itself continue to be. Finally, we have recognised that the cat-life may be described as a cycle of changes. Let there be a proper supply of food and good air, with sufficient warmth and moisture, and the kitten becomes a cat, which again reproduces (the requisite conditions existing) a kitten. Every cat, then, possesses an innate tendency to carry on a cycle of definite and regular changes when exposed to certain fixed conditions.

3. In the structural and functional characters above given, the cat agrees with all other living creatures, and DIFFERS FROM CREATURES WHICH ARE DEVOID OF LIFE. [Mivart discusses the difference between plants, animals, fungi, crystals, minerals etc at length]

4. But an objection may perhaps be made [. . .]. This objection might he re-enforced by the following argument: Your cat gives forth ova and spermatozoa; these bodies exhibit such movements and actions as certainly imply that they are alive. Yet they do not exhibit the main characteristic above given of living things - for they do not tend to carry on a cycle of changes when exposed to certain fixed conditions. Under no circumstances will ova directly reproduce ova, or spermatozoa, spermatozoa. [. . . ] [Mivart also goes on to discuss why crystals are not living organisms, and the difference between animals and plants, both of which are living things.]

7. The cat having been thus compared with the inorganic world, and with the world of plants, our next endeavour should be to ascertain its POSITION AMONGST ANIMALS. [Mivart discusses the classification into kingdoms (animal vs plant), sub-kingdoms, classes, orders, families, genera and species i.e. taxonomy.]

8. [The cat is a member of sub-kingdom Vertebrata i.e. backboned animals]

18. Besides the creature to the study of which this book is devoted, all the animals most familiar to us and most generally valuable to us - as our dogs and our domestic cattle - are members of the class Mammalia. The name "beasts" is in more or less general use to denote the various brute animals which belong to the class; but since man himself - the most individually numerous of all the large animals - is, structurally considered, also a member of it, the name "Mammals" will be henceforth always exclusively here employed to denote the creatures which compose it. [. . .] the cat belongs to a mammalian genus which comprises the majority of the forms reviewed in the twelfth chapter of this work. The whole of these forms - all the lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, pumas, ocelots, lynxes, cheetahs, and other living and extinct cats - form together a group which has the zoological rank of a "family," and it is a family of an "order" divisible into "sub-orders," while the order itself is one of various others which go to make one of the three very unequal "sub-classes" which together make up the whole class Mammalia. The class Mammalia has been now compared with all the other classes of back-boned animals, and the vertebrate sub-kingdom with all other sub-kingdoms of animals. It remains to compare the cat's sub-class with the other mammalian sub-classes; the cat's order with the other orders of its sub-class; the cat's sub-order with the other sub-orders into which its order is divisible, and the cat's family with the other families which, together with that family itself, make up the sub-order within which the cat is included. This done, we have but to consider the results arrived at in the twelfth chapter as to genera into which the cat's family is divisible, m order to exhaust our present inquiry by attaining a final and satisfactory answer to the question "What is the cat's place in nature?" and to understand the cat's taxonomy.

[. . .] Lastly we have the order to which all the kinds of cats belong, together with all pole-cats, civet-cats, hyenas, bears, weasels, dogs, wolves, and foxes - the order of flesh-eating mammals par excellence, or CARNIVORA.

These various orders of the class Mammalia are grouped together into three sub-classes as follows: -

The order Monotremata [egg-laying mammals] is an order so exceedingly different from all the others that there can be no doubt (in spite of the few species it contains) of its forming a sub-class by itself. It forms the sub-class ORNITHODELPHIA. The order Marsupiala differs much less from the great bulk of mammals than does the order Monotremata, nevertheless it also is reckoned as forming a second sub class by itself. It forms a sub-class much more numerous than the sub-class Ornthodelphia, yet it contains but very few species when compared with the number of species contained in the third sub-class. The second or Marsupial sub-class bears the name Dipetpuis. All the rest of the mammalia - that is to say the whole of the orders Ungulata, Proboscidea, Sirenia, Cetacea, Pinnipedia, Primates, Cheiroptera, Edentata, Insectivora, Rodentia, and Carnivora, together make up the third and last mammalian sub-class, that containing the placental mammals - the sub-class MONODELPHIA.

19. Now the cat, as a monodelphous mammal, of course shares the characters which distinguish that sup-class from both the others.

20. [Mivart compares the dentition and anatomy of carnivores with non-carnivores.]

21. [Mivart lists and compares the dentition and anatomy of the families and sub-orders of carnivores.]

24. Such being the nature of the families of the cat's sub-order,

25. We have now before us as complete a statement as the author can give of the relations which exist between the cat's family and all other living organisms whatsoever. As to the subordinate groups contained within the cat's own family, i.e., its genera, we saw in the last chapter that all known cats living and extinct can be arranged in eleven sets of kinds, to which the names Felis, Cynaelurus, AElurodon, Archaelurus, Dinictis, Nimravus, Pseudaelurus, Hoplophoneus, Pogonodon, Machaerodus, and Eusmilus, have been given. We now see what was meant by saying that these groups have each the value of a "genus." As to the relations which exist between the feline genera, we now also see that the exceptional characters presented by Dinictis and Archaelurus are peculiarities which cause those genera to have a certain resemblance to the Viverrine family.

In the last chapter we recognized the fact that an extreme specialization of structure is presented by Machaerodus and Eusmilus, and that Cynaelurus is the most exceptional form amongst living felines, and one in which some of the distinctive characters of its family (e.g., the retractility of the claws), are poorly developed. The cat's genus, Felis, is one which, while it well exemplifies the characters of the family to which it belongs, yet does not exhibit any of those characters developed either in an extreme or in an aberrant manner. This statement needs some explanation. Every group of animals containing various species consists of certain kinds, which are more or less alike, and differ but little from an ideal standard which is the type of such group. Such kinds are normal forms. Besides these, there are generally certain other kinds which are peculiarly modified in one way or another, departing more or less widely from the normal structure. Such divergent kinds are said to be aberrant or abnormal. Also both "normal" and ‘aberrant' forms may be either what is called specialized or generalized. "Specialized" creatures are such as have an exceptional organization of a definite kind. "Generalized" creatures are such as resemble the general run of animals to which they are more or less closely related, but have the distinctive characters of their group poorly developed. But besides the specialized and generalized normal forms, there may be other normal forms which are neither of these, but adhere closely to the type and express it in its intensity, yet without any one-sided development of it. These are TYPICAL Forms. The full meaning of these terms can only be made clear by examples, for which it is necessary to refer to some other group of animals with which the reader may be acquainted, or with which he can easily become so. Let us then take, as examples, species of the well-defined group of ruminating beasts. Amongst them we have creatures which adhere to the normal structure, but yet its characteristic features are in them but poorly developed. They are then generalized normal forms, as, e.g., that small South American deer, the yenada or pudu (Pudu humilis). Others, which adhere to the normal structure, may carry it to an intense but somewhat one-sided degree of development. Such would be specialized normal forms, as, e.g., the elk or the four-horned antelope. Others again may diverge from the general type in the direction of other creatures outside their group. Such would be generalized aberrant forms, such as the camel and llama, or as the chevrotains; whilst others may diverge from such type in a special direction of their own, and such would be called specialized aberrant forms, as, e.g. the giraffe. Finally, others will be normal, and yet with the characters special to the group strongly developed, i.e., they will be typical forms, as, e.g., the red deer or the Indian antelope.

To apply these remarks to the Felidae, we have an example of a "generalized normal form" in the cheetah, Cynaelurus. The lion is an example of a "specialized normal form." For a "generalized aberrant form" we must have recourse to fossils, such as Dinctis, and, above all, Archaelurus, as also for specialized aberrant forms, of which Eusmilus and Machaerodus smilodon afford us excellent examples. Finally, as the expression of the typical or fully-developed normal form of the cat's family, we have the species which go to make up the maneless cats of the typical genus Felis, of which Felis catus will stand as a very good example.

But if the cat is thus the typical genus of its family, in what relation may its family be said to stand to the other families of its order thus considered? Of all the families of that order, the dog's family, Canidae, seems to be the most generalized aberrant one. For while it possesses the general characters of its order without carrying them to an intense degree, it shows certain resemblances to forms outside its order. [e.g., to certain marsupials.]

The bears, on the other hand, are specialized aberrant forms, as they depart from the normal standard of the order in a special direction of their own, as also do the otters and several other forms of Carnivora. [Such as e. g. the kinkajou (Cerco leptes), the binturong (Arctitis), and also Proteles.]

As to the mass of the Mustilidae and Viverridae, they may be considered to be normally generalized carnivores, since they possess the ordinary carnivorous characters moderately developed. It is not easy to point out any certainly normally specialized families - any family, that is, which has the characters of the order in an intense degree, but developed, as it were, in a one-sided manner. Such characters seem only present in certain exceptional Felidae, such as Machaerodus and Eusmilus. If so, then the Felidae, as a whole, must be held to be the typical family of the whole order; for they carry the carnivorous type of structure to an intense degree, but one which is in the direct line of development which the order Carnivora has followed. Carnivorous beasts generally have sharp claws, often more or less retractile, but none have them so perfectly developed in these respects as have the cats. Almost all carnivorous beasts have teeth more or less well adapted for killing prey and cutting flesh, but none have their teeth so admirably adapted for these purposes as have the cats. The cats are then carnivora par excellence, and they carry out the type of their order to its highest-known and most perfectly harmonious expression.

But the cats are not only such highly-developed Carnivora. Something may also be said in favour of their being the highest of mammals - the very flower and culmination of the mammalian animal tree. Spontaneous activity and sensitiveness are the special characteristics of animal life, and with both these powers the cats are largely endowed. We have recognized the perfection of their organs of movement, and that of the very substance of their bones and muscles, as well as the great perfection of their special senses. It may be objected, however, that the activities and sense perceptions of certain other beasts are, in their own various ways, as highly developed as are those of the Felidae. It is certainly very true that it is only through the possession of perfectly-formed bones and muscles, of a delicate sense of hearing, or of far-reaching vision, that antelopes, hares, and such creatures, escape their carnivorous pursuers. But then they use their organization for escape. The organization of the cat-tribe may then be deemed superior, because it is not only excellent in itself, but because it is fitted to dominate the excellences of other beasts.

Thus considered, the Carnivora would rank first amongst mammals, and the cats would rank first amongst the Carnivora. Man, however, is a mammal, and therefore to affirm this would be to affirm the inferiority of our own species. But man's superiority is mental, it resides in his intellect, not in his peculiarly-formed great toe, hand, pelvis, or other corporeal peculiarity [. . .] The apes are, like the dogs and the elephant, superior perhaps in cognitive psychical endowments to the cat, but yet any such differences between these animals are merely differences of degree and not of kind, like that which we have seen to exist between the cat-mind and our own. [. . .] It is therefore true that "something may be said in favour of cats being the highest of mammals," if: man is considered merely in his animal capacity - in which alone he can be brought into comparison with other organisms.

But whether or not this eminence be allowed to the cat, there can be no question but that it is the most highly-developed type of carnivorous mammalian life - the most perfect embodiment of the idea of a "beast of prey." Such, then, is certainly the "CAT'S PLACE IN NATURE:" It is a member of the typical genus of the typical family of carnivorous placental mammals - mammals being the suck-giving, tied-brained class of back-boned animals. [i.e., with their cerebral hemispheres united by means of a corpus callosum.]

CHAPTER XIV. THE CAT'S HEXICOLOGY.

1. Every animal has definite relations to the various influences which on all sides surround and act upon it, and which constitute what is called its "ENVIRONMENT." Every animal has existed for a certain definite time and within certain limits of space. It has been favoured, or the reverse, by the physical forces (that is, by conditions of climate, including temperature, moisture, &c.), and its existence has been related in various ways to that of other living creatures. The science of Hexicology is (as was shortly stated at the end of the first chapter) the study of all these more or less complex relations.

2. The cat-group, Felidae, has now to be considered as thus related to its environment, and we may consider first its relations with PHYSICAL CONDITIONS. As to heat, that the domestic cat loves warmth is what everyone must have observed. Almost all the larger cats, and the great bulk of the smaller kinds, are inhabitants of the warmest regions of the globe. No cat dwells in the extreme north with the polar bear, while no region is too hot for certain species of Felis.

Yet we have seen that the Ounce and Felis scripta are dwellers on the snowy heights of Thibet, and that the tiger ranges to the Amoor river, while the group of lynxes - the caracal excepted - are northern forms, two varieties, possibly two species, being found in Scandinavia and Canada. Moreover, in earlier times, existing species, such as the lion, extended into colder climes than they now inhabit, while in the earliest prehistoric human period that great cat, Felis spelea, was an inhabitant of England, protected perhaps by a very ample furry coat, such as that which protects the Ounce of Thibet to-day. Yet the differences as to fur are after all very small compared with the differences as to climate. Therefore, the feline race being thus able to live in countries of very different temperatures, must have a considerable internal power of regulating and sustaining the temperature of the body, and concomitantly with this faculty we find that no cat falls into a winter sleep, i.e., no cat hibernates.

As to light, though the great majority of cats dwell in climates where daylight is intense, yet they mostly remain in repose while the sun is above the horizon, and prowl about in twilight or at night. Still certain kinds are diurnal, and from observations made at the Zoological Gardens it seems that it is (as might be expected) the cats with pupils which can be contracted into minute linear openings which are the most nocturnal. Yet the tiger in spite of its circular pupils seeks its prey at night.

With regard to moisture, though no cats are aquatic, and though none take to the water save with more or less (generally with extreme) reluctance, yet many (like the tiger and the jaguar) habitually haunt the banks of rivers or pools, because they more easily obtain their prey in such situations. Certain kinds, moreover, live more or less upon fish (as F. viverrina), and the domestic cat's relish for fish is very marked. Yet the Felidae are a family of either distinctly terrestrial or else arboreal mammals.

The Felidae as a rule do not drink much water, but it seems that the smaller kinds drink more in proportion to their size than do the larger species. The lion is found in desert regions, and when in captivity drinks very little. [Mr. A. D. Bartlett has kindly supplied me with information as to the drinking habit in confinement of different species of the cat family.]

As to the degree of rarity of the atmosphere which they can endure, we have seen that the Ounce ranges from 9,000 to 18,000 feet - the latter altitude being one at which man breathes with much difficulty.

3. The GEOGRAPHICAL RELATIONS of the cat-family are instructive and somewhat complex. As was long ago remarked by Buffon, the great cats of the Old and New Worlds are markedly distinct. The lion, tiger, leopard, ounce, clouded tiger, cheetah, and caracal, with a variety of smaller cats, are all inhabitants of the Old World only. The puma, jaguar, ocelot, jaguarondi, eyra, collocollo, the pampas, and one or two other cats are exclusively inhabitants of the New World. It is only amongst the lynxes that we find a form which is common to both these worlds - the Canadian and North European lynxes being probably but varieties of one species. With this exception no wild cat found in America is also found out of it. The New World is not so rich in cat-species as is the Old, nor do its largest kinds, the puma and jaguar, equal the largest kinds of Africa and Asia.

A further geographical distinction may be drawn amongst American cats themselves. Of its varieties of lynx, F. maculata descends as far south as Mexico, while the puma alone extends to high latitudes in both North and South America. We may therefore distinguish the region north of Arkansas and Louisiana as the region of lynxes and the puma; while Mexico, with parts of Arkansas and Louisiana, and all America south of Mexico may be said to be the region of the puma, jaguar, ocelot, and all other American cats.

Strange to say the West Indian Islands, though some of them, as Cuba and Hayti, seem admirably suited to shelter and support species of Felidae, are entirely destitute of them. [Trinidad is to be reckoned as a part of the South American continent.]

In the Old World, certain other geographical divisions may be similarly established. We have seen that the lion, leopard, caracal, and common cheetah certainly exist in both Asia and Africa. With these exceptions, however, the two tropical continents of the Old World seem to have a quite different cat population.

In Africa we have, peculiar to it, the serval with its allied species or varieties, F. rutila, F. neglecta, F. servalina, F. celidogaster, and F. senegalenis, as also F. caligata and C. lanea. Moreover, though the serval is said to occur in Algeria, and F. caligata is a North African form, the other varieties are found in Guinea, Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Senegal. Africa south of the Sahara may therefore be considered as richer in cats than the more northern portion of that continent, especially as it is south of the Sahara that the kinds common to Africa and Asia are principally found. There is reason, moreover, (from the analogy of the geographical distribution of other animals) to suspect that the felines now found north, of the Sahara may be immigrants from the more southern portion of Africa.

Just as in America we found the West Indies to be devoid of cats, so, strange to say, the great island of Madagascar, in spite of its forests and numerous animal population, is similarly without a single species of cat.

In Asia we find a further subdivision possible between its northern, south-western, and south-eastern portions. In the north, i.e., north of the Himalayas, we have the ounce, the tiger, a lynx (F. isabellina), the steppe cat (F. Manul), the leopard (in Japan), and the species or varieties before described as F. microtis, F. tristis, F. scripta, and F. chinensis.

In South-western Asia we have the lion, with certain forms common to this and other Asiatic regions, such as the tiger, leopard, Indian wild cat, and some others. In South-eastern Asia we have the clouded tiger (F. macrocelis), F. planiceps, F. badia, F. marmorata, F. megalotis, F. aurata, F. minuta, with the tiger, leopard, and others common to other regions. The tiger, as we have seen, descends through the Indian Archipelago, with the exception of Borneo, down to the island of Bali, which is its furthest limit south.

In the immense and hot island of New Guinea, in Celebes, in Australia, and in New Zealand, there is no single indigenous cat of any kind. [Muller (Verhand. over de Natuur lijke Geschiedenis Zool. Leyden, 1844, Part I., Over de Zoogdiernen van den Indischen Archipel., p. 54) speaks of reports received from natives of the existence of a panther and wild cat in Celebes. Though it is not impossible that there may be a cat in Celebes, it is extremely unlikely that one should be found in that island, and Dr. A. B. Meyer, of Dresden, writes to me to say that the animal meant is probably a Paradoxurus, which certainly exists there. He also tells me he obtained two specimens of Felis minuta from Zebu, in the Philippine Islands, F. minuta also inhabits Borneo.]

In Europe, we have two species of lynx and also the wild cat, while within the historical period we had the lion also. Thus the world may be divided according to the distribution of its cat-population into two great divisions - those of the Old and New Worlds respectively, with further subdivisions into: (1) America north of Arkansas and Louisiana; (2) Arkansas and Louisiana, Mexico, Central and Southern America; (3) Africa, the part north of the Sahara being somewhat distinct; (4) Asia north of the Himalaya; (5) Southern Asia - slightly separable into (A) a south-western, and (B) a south-eastern portion; and, finally, (6) Europe. A certain affinity exists between Europe and Northern Asia on the one hand, and in a less degree, between Europe and North America on the other; while South-western Asia has a certain affinity to Africa. The West Indies, Madagascar, the Philippines, the Moluccas, New Guinea, Australia, and New Zealand, are all devoid of any natural feline population, while Asia is certainly the great home of the cat family.

Such being the geography of the Felidae, what relation does it bear to the geography of other animals?

4. It has been found that (regard being had to the geographical distribution of animals of all kinds) the earth's surface may be most conveniently divided zoologically (the polar regions not being included) into the six following regions: (1) Palae-arctic; (2) Ne-arctic; (3) Indian; (4) Ethiopian; (5) Neo-tropical; and (6) Australian.

The PALAE-ARCTIC REGION includes all Europe, with Iceland and the Azores; Africa, north of the Sahara, with the Canaries and Cape Verde Islands; and all Asia (with Japan), north of the Himalaya and the tropic of Cancer, except the southern part of China, Assam, and some parts adjacent, which belong to the Indian region. Characteristic of this region are horses and asses, mules, sheep, goats, camels, fallow-deer, the ibex, the chamois, many warblers, grouse, pheasants, tits, magpies, true vipers, chameleons, and various Batrachians, such as the gigantic salamander, the land salamander, the proteus, and various other efts, as well as many frogs and toads. Twenty genera of fresh-water fishes (belonging mostly to the carp, perch, and salmon families) are peculiar to this region. As to insects, there are fifteen peculiar genera of butterflies. Here and there are also found certain monkeys, flying foxes, the genet, hyaena, polar bear, walrus, and hyrax.

This zoological region does not exactly correspond with our feline geographical divisions, yet it to a certain degree harmonizes with them, embracing, as it does, the European, North Asiatic, and North African feline divisions in one.

The NE-ARCTIC REGION of general zoological geography, includes North America down to and (on elevated land) somewhat south of the tropic of Cancer. This region is destitute of apes, hedgehogs, wild horses, asses, swine, true oxen, goats, or dormice. It has hardly any sheep or antelopes, and no flycatchers, starlings, true grouse, or pheasants. On the other hand, it has peculiar forms, such as racoons, peccaries, certain antelopes, certain pouched rats, the prairie dog, certain porcupines, and also turkeys, crested quails, tufted grouse, and passenger-pigeons, the mocking-bird, the canvas-backed duck, and some humming birds. Besides these, it has rattlesnakes, the curious lizards, Chirotes and Phrynosoma, and various terrapins, besides alligators, but no chameleons or true vipers. The tailed-Batrachians have their head-quarters in this region. Besides other genera peculiar to it may be mentioned: the Menopoma, Menobranchus, Amphinama, and Siren, as well as the axolotl. Certain ganoid fishes are also noteworthy, such as Amia, the bony pike (Lepidosteus), and Scaphirhynchus.

This region mostly corresponds with our North American cat-region, but extends further southwards, as our North American feline region excludes Mexico and Southern Texas, and even parts of Louisiana and Arkansas.

The ORIENTAL or INDIAN REGION embraces India, Burmah, Southern China, the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago, including the Philippine Islands and the island of Bally, but excluding Lombok, Celebes, and the islands south and east of these. Amongst its animal inhabitants are many monkeys. There are also many deer, and but few antelopes. [Amongst them is the four-horned antelope.] Elephants and rhinoceroses are found there, and also chevrotains (Tragulus), pangolins, and a tapir. Amongst its birds may be noted the peacock, the argus and fire-backed pheasants, true fowls, hornbills, bee-eaters, many pigeons, parrots, cuckoos, and woodpeckers, and a few sunbirds (Nectarinidae). As to reptiles, we find a multitude of snakes - amongst them the cobras and curious Uropeltidae, or shield-tailed snakes - but no rattlesnakes - with many lizards, including chameleons and the little flying-dragon (Draco). We also find crocodiles and gavials, but no alligators, while in the Indian Ocean we find sea-snakes. Frogs and toads are numerous, but efts are wanting, save as immigrants from the Palae-arctic region. We, however, meet with the singular Ophiomorpha, or snake-like creatures of the frog's class, i.e., of the class Batrachia.

This region then is a very well defined one, and corresponds with our South-eastern Asiatic feline region. It is remarkable that the island of Bally is the extreme limit of the Indian general zoological region as well as of the South Asiatic feline region.

The ETHIOPIAN REGION is made up of Africa, south of the Sahara, with Arabia, the Seychelle islands, Mauritius, and Madagascar. It agrees with India in having elephants and rhinoceroses; but zebras, quaggas, certain hogs, the hippopotamus, the giraffe, the aquatic musk-deer, and Cape ant-eater (Orycteropus), are all peculiarly African. Africa is also specially remarkable as the home of multitudes of antelopes of many different kinds, great herds of which range over its southern plains. There are, however, no bears, deer, true oxen, goats, or sheep. Peacocks, pheasants, and jungle fowls are also wanting amongst its birds, while in their place we find the guinea fowls. The secretary bird, Balaeniceps, the Balearic crane, and ostrich, are forms peculiar to Africa, which is also the great home of the weaver-birds and sun-birds. Reptiles abound - tortoises, lizards, and snakes, amongst which latter (as in India) there are cobras, but no rattle-snakes. Crocodiles exist, but neither alligators nor gavials. There are no efts, but there are Ophiomorpha, and many frogs and toads, Dactylethra being the most remarkable of the latter. Amongst fishes, we have the curious ganoid, Polypterus, and one form of Lepidosiren.

This general zoological region agrees with the corresponding feline region, save that the latter is less distinct from that part of the continent which is north of the Sahara, and has nothing to do with the islands above named. Madagascar, however, is remarkable, not only for the absence of cats, but for possessing a very peculiar animal population of lemurs and lemur-like forms, and as the home of that exceptionally cat-like Viverrine, the Foussa - Cryptoprocta ferox.

The NEO-TROPICAL REGION of general zoological geography comprises America south of the tropic of Cancer, together with the West Indies, and includes the greatest forest region in the world. It has a number of peculiar monkeys and bats, with two river-dolphins found nowhere else. It has also the coati-mondi, kinkajou, and tapir; but there are no elephants, rhinoceroses, horses, asses, or hippopotamuses. There are peccaries also instead of hogs. Altogether devoid of antelopes, goats, sheep, oxen, or camels, there are deer and llamas. Rodents abound, and there are many absolutely peculiar, such as the paca, the viscacha, the chinchilla, the guinea-pig, and its gigantic cousin, the capybara, preyed on by the jaguar. But the neo-tropical region is remarkable for the presence of a group of animals found nowhere else whatever. This is the group comprising the sloths, ant-eaters, and armadillos. Opossums also are very numerous, and of many species of different sizes, and seem to take the place of the insect-eating beasts Insectivora), which are here conspicuous by their absence. Amongst Birds, we have, in the first place, the beautiful humming-birds, with toucans, jacamars, mot-mots, todies, macaws, curassows, and tinamous. Specially noteworthy, also, are the American ostrich, or rhea, the hoazin (Opisthocomus), the cariama, and the horned-senamer (Palamedea). There are very many reptiles, and amongst them are both crocodiles and alligators, but no gavials; an extensive family of Iguana-like lizards, the ameiva and its allies, but no chameleon. There are many snakes, including the boa-constrictor and rattle-snakes, but no cobras, or true vipers. Batrachians are represented by Ophiomorpha and many frogs and toads, including the celebrated Pipa of Surinam. A few efts also exist in the mountains towards the north. Amongst fishes may be mentioned the largest fresh-water fish in the world (Sudis gigas), the electric eel, the Trygon family of rays, and a Lepidosiren. The very numerous carp family, however, is here unrepresented.

Thus this rich general zoological region agrees with the South American feline region save that the latter extends further north, while the former embraces the West Indian islands which are excluded from the South American cat region.

Finally, the AUSTRALIAN REGION is made up of Australia, with Tasmania, New Guinea, Celebes, the Moluccas, and islands of the Malay Archipelago up to and including Lumbok, and also of New Zealand and the Polynesian Islands. This great region is distinguished as the home of the marsupial and monotrematous mammals. Only in the part which approaches the Indian region do we find any ape or civet cat, with an ox (the anoa), hogs, deer and some squirrels. Flying foxes, however, exist even in Australia itself, As to birds, there are no vultures or woodpeckers; or true finches or pheasants, while we have, as absolutely peculiar to the region, birds of paradise [New Guinea forms], honeysuckers (Melephagidae), lyre-birds, bower-birds, cockatoos, many parrots, the brush-tongued lories, the mound-making Megapodius, the emeu, the cassowary, and (in New Zealand) the apteryx. It is also the head-quarters of the group of kingfishers, and it has many pigeons, including the crowned pigeon and the hook-billed Didunculus. There are also large goatsuckers, and a variety of weaver-birds and sun-birds. A multitude of snakes exist, and very many poisonous ones, but no true vipers and no rattle-snakes. As in India, we find gavials as well as crocodiles, but no alligators. Only in the Malayan part of the region are there any land tortoises. Absolutely peculiar reptilian forms are the Pygopus, the frilled lizard, the Moloch lizard, and above all (in New Zealand) the lizard Sphenodon [A last survivor of a group of forms long passed away.] There are no Ophiomorpha, and no efts, but there are very many frogs and toads. As to fresh- water fishes, we have the very noteworthy Ceratodus (an ancient triassic form here still surviving), while both the perch and carp families are wanting.

New Zealand is very remarkable for the almost entire absence of indigenous mammalian life - marsupial, no less than placental. There, birds are almost the highest animals below man, and there, until his arrival, they held undisputed sway as represented by the huge creatures belonging to the genus Dinornis.

The Australian region then is not merely distinguished by an absence of cats, but by the presence of an animal population which could hardly have co-existed with them. In the West Indies and Madagascar, cats may be absent merely through the accident of the non-introduction into those parts of the earth's surface of a large number of mammalian forms of life, amongst which the cats were included. Yet we do find there some mammals more or less allied to cats; but their numbers are few, while the place of the Carnivora is not taken by a great variety of other forms remote from them in structure and affinity. In Australia, however, while the whole sub-class to which the Felidae belong is conspicuous by its absence, it is replaced and represented by a multitude of creatures belonging to another sub-class, i.e., to the Didelphia. Thus the Australian region may be considered as a sort of negative feline region, the emphatically "catless" portion of the globe.

5. We must next consider the relations of cats to Time, and first with respect to individual life. The cats of largest size appear to live longest. The domestic cat lives ordinarily for about twelve years, and eighteen years is the greatest age for which the Author has obtained certain evidence. The lion is said however to live for forty years, and the well-known lion named "Pompey," which died in the Tower of London in 1760, had lived there, it is asserted, for no less than seventy years. This seems, however, to be a fable. The Author has not been able to ascertain with certainty that the lion lives beyond thirty years.

As to the period during which existing kinds of cats have lived in times geologically recent, we must have recourse to history and to deposits such as those amongst which have been found the prehistoric remains of earlier races of man. As to the existence of Felidae in more ancient periods, and as to the period when genera which are now extinct flourished, evidence has to be sought for amongst the fossils contained in the recks and deposits of different geological dates.

It has already been said that lions existed in South-eastern Europe in the time of Xerxes. These may have been survivors of the huge cat Felis spelea (the so-called cave lion). But whether this was the case or not, it is certain that large extinct kinds, together with the leopard and other smaller forms (including the wild cat), ranged over Europe and England in prehistoric periods of very different dates.

6. Before passing in review those genera of cats which have become extinct, it may be well to state briefly some elementary facts of geology, an acquaintance with which is necessary for a correct appreciation of the relation of the cat to past time. [Mivart explains the concept of geological strata and of fossils in those strata.]

7. Such being the "great groups," the "formations," and the several "strata" in which fossils are found, those of the CAT FAMILY occur as follows:

The genus Felis is found in Greece and India, in strata of the newer miocene or oldest pliocene age. A cat, the Felis media of Larlet, has been found in the middle miocene in France. F. Christolii (a cat of the size of the serval) occurs in the lower pliocene of France. In pleistocene times, tiger-like cats, with the leopard, lynx, and wild cat, were found in England. Felis spelea became extinct north of the Alps at the close of the pleistocene age; but, as has been said, the well-known "lions" which existed in Macedonia in the time of Xerxes may have been surviving examples of that species.

Machaerodus is preserved in pliocene and miocene deposits of Europe, India, and America, both North and South. It survived in England down to late pleistocene times. [See a paper by Professor W. Boyd Dawkins on Tertiary Mammals, Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, August, 1880.]

Hoplophoneus is from the White River, Nebraska, or lower miocene.
Pseudaelurus has been found in the Phosphorites de Quercy, Loup River, Nebraska, and Sanson (Gers). It is therefore eocene and miocene and pliocene.
Nimravus is a form from the White River, Oregon, and, therefore, of lower miocene times.
Dinictis is eocene and miocene, occurring as it does in the Phosphorites de Quercy and the White Rivers of Colorado, Nebraska, and Oregon.
Archaelurus is from the lower miocene beds of the John Day region of Oregon.
Pogonodon is from the same region as Archaelurus.
Eusmilus is eocene, from the Phosphorites de Quercy, and Ailurodon is from the pliocene of Loup River, Nebraska.

The forms which are oldest therefore, are Pseudaelurus, Dinictis, and Eusmilus. That is to say, the first in time for which we have any evidence are two genera which, in very different degrees, differ from the cat type and approach less specialized forms, and also one genus which is most extremely specialized. Next come Pogonodon, Archaelurus, Nimravus, Hoplophoneus, Machaerodus and Felis; that is to say, the most generalized forms of all the Felidae, together with extremely specialized forms. Nevertheless it is a fact that the genera which most approach ordinary non-feline carnivora - the genera namely Archaelurus and Dinictis - are from the eocene or older miocene, and none of the most generalized forms have as yet been found in pliocene strata.

No feline remains have been discovered in any deposit whatever which is older than the eocene, i.e., there are none in any mesozoic or secondary strata.

8. But very few mammalian remains of any kind have as yet been found in secondary rocks, though of course multitudes of mammals must have existed before the eocene strata were deposited. The remains of beasts first make their appearance in the upper part of the trias and also in the oolite, including the Purbeck beds. Such remains have been found in both Europe and North America, and consist of the genera Microlestes and Dromatherium. Microlestes is a small insect-eating beast [See Owen's Palæontology, p . 301] of which a few teeth have been discovered. Dromatherium [L.c. , p. 302] is a small American mammal, the mandible of which bore on each side three incisors separated by short intervals, a canine, and ten teeth in a continuous series of premolars and molars.

Other mesozoic forms are Amphitherium, Amphilestes, Phascolotherium, and Stereognathus.

Amphitherium [See Owen's British Fossil Mammals, p. 29] is a genus founded on a lower jaw, with three incisors and a canine on each side, but with a series of twelve premolars and molars. The angle of the mandible is not inflected in Amphitherium.

Amphilestes [Owen's Paleontology, p. 303 , and Brit . Foss . Mam. p. 58 (Amphitherium Broderipii)] is a form similar to the last, but with teeth more bristling with pointed tubercles, suited for crushing the bodies of insects.

Phascolotherium [Owen's Palaeontology, p. 304, and Broderip, Zoological Journal, vol . iii ., p. 408, plate 40] had three rather separated incisors on each side of its mandible, a canine, and a series of only seven teeth representing the premolars and molars. The angle of the mandible was inflected.

Stereognathus [Owen's Paleontology, p. 308] is an extinct form known by a portion of a mandible (from the Stonesfield slate) three quarters of an inch long, with three teeth quadrate in form, each with three pairs of cusps, and not distinctly resembling those of any existing group of animals.

These forms (except the last mentioned) have been generally presumed to be marsupial, from their resemblance to certain modern marsupials, such, e.g., as Myrmecobius, a small Australian opossum, with a series of nine molars, a canine, and three rather separated incisors on each side of the mandible. Some of these fossil genera also present certain resemblances in the form of the molar teeth, or in the position of the dental foramen, to American opossums (the genus Didelphys) or to kangaroo-rats (Hypsiprymnus). The above are the yet known secondary mammalian forms.

When we enter upon eocene strata we come at once upon a multitude of mammalian species now passed away, some of which it will be well here briefly to pass in review for reasons which will appear in the next chapter. Amongst eocene mammalia a group of fossils may first be mentioned which have been associated together by Professor Cope under the term Creodonta. [Mivart describes various extinct mammals from this strata.]

[. . .] Patriofelis [See United States Geological Survey of Territories , vol. i., p. 114, plate 7, fig. 20; and Pro. Acad . Nat. Sc. Philadel., March, 1870, p.11 , plate 2, fig. 10] is a genus founded on some fragments of a jaw obtained by Professor Hayden from near Fire Bridge, Wyoming. It was larger than the panther, the lower jaw being six inches long. It has similar characters to those of Mesonyx, save that there are only five lower molars instead of seven. [. . .]

9. The next and last point to be considered in studying the cat's hexicology, concerns its RELATIONS WITH OTHER LIVING BEINGS. Living beings may affect each other's existence in a variety of ways, as food, as rivals, as indirect friends, or as direct enemies.

Now, in the first place, the Felidae, as essentially carnivorous animals, can only live where they can find such other animals as may be necessary for their food; and, accordingly, it is where land animals are most abundant, that the most numerous and largest kinds of the cat family are found. Certain kinds of cats also are, as we have seen, of arboreal habits; and the presence or absence of forests will very importantly affect the existence here or there of such forms.

The markings of cats have been supposed to be useful to them in various ways in their relations with other animals. The vertical stripes of the tiger resemble the vertical shadows of the grasses of the jungle amongst which it lurks, and may so aid its concealment and allow its prey to approach it unsuspectingly and fatally. The scattered spots of the leopard agree with the scattered spots of shadow amongst the foliage of the trees on the boughs of which it lies in wait. Similarly the hue of the lion has been thought to be useful to it in sandy plains. All this is no doubt true, but a multitude of instances are to be found in nature in which shapes, colours, and markings are most noticeable, but yet do not answer any purpose of the kind above referred to, and therefore to regard such relations as the main causes by which these markings have been brought about would be to rest in an explanation fundamentally inadequate.

Animals stand to each other in the relation of rivalry where they each consume the same kind of food and thus tend to starve each other. Such a rivalry must evidently exist between different kinds of cats, and so prevent the coexistence of many kinds or many individuals of the same kind in the same locality.

Living creatures may unintentionally act a friendly part to one another; inasmuch as animals of one kind may destroy creatures which are inimical to the existence of another kind, and thus every animal which destroys creatures which prey upon feline animals of course benefits the latter. Again, whatever creature tends to render abundant the food of another creature is of course the latter's benefactor. Thus it has been observed that the presence of a certain kind of clover is beneficial to cats; inasmuch as it is useful to a particular species of humble bee, the nests of which favour the existence of mice, which again are the food of cats. Did we know the analogous inter-relations which exist between the living creatures of tropical forests, we should doubtless come upon many curious cross relations and interdependencies of a similar kind, affecting their feline population.

But various kinds of cats seem to have other cats for their direct enemies; for we have seen that the tiger will even carry off and devour a wounded individual of its own species. The direct enemies of the largest and most powerful cats must be few; since the great beasts which may successfully contend with them - elephants, rhinoceroses, &c. - being herbivorous creatures, are not impelled by hunger to pursue and attack them. The smaller cats no doubt occasionally fall a prey to other carnivora, but who- ever has seen a dog attack a cat, and has noted the combined ferocity and dexterity which the cat can exhibit with its very efficiently armed paws, may well doubt whether wild-cats of any kind will often be successfully attacked by any creatures not overwhelmingly superior to them in size and strength.

10. Against other enemies, however, of a very different kind, even the largest cats have no power of resistance. Such enemies are their internal and external parasites. These chiefly belong to the sub-kingdom Vermes. The first group is that of the thread-worms (Nematoidea). Of these there are several species which find a home in the body of the cat. They are [For the list here given I am indebted to the kindness of my friend Dr. T.Spencer Cobbold, F. R.S.] Ascaris mystax, Trichina spiralis, Trichosoma cati, Oxyuris compar, Strongylus tubaeformis, and Olulanus tricuspis. The second group is that of the flukes (Zrematoda), of which there are not less than three kinds, namely, Distoma lanceolatum, Amphistoma truncatum, and Hemistoma cordatum. The third group, that of the tape-worms (Taeniada), is represented by at least eight species as follows: - Taenia elliptica, Taenia crassicollis, Taenia semiteres (Baird), Taenia litterata (Taenia canis-lagopodis), Taenia lineata, Bothriocephalus felis, and Bothriocephalus decipiens. The Cysticercus cellulosae, or larva of Taenia solium, has been obtained from beneath the scapula, and Engelmayer found a Canurus in a cat's liver.

Dr Spencer Cobbold has observed [See his work on The Internal Parasites of our Domesticated Animals, p. 124; and his more recent work on Parasites, p. 308.], "Every owner of cats must have, from time to time, noticed the frequent occurrence of sickness amongst these animals; such fits of vomiting usually terminating in the expulsion of worms from the mouth. The internal parasites causing these attacks are small nematodes (Ascaris mystax) occupying the stomach; the females being nearly twice as long as the males, and sometimes measuring as much as four inches. Strongylus tubaeformis is occasionally found in the upper intestine, and Trichina spiralis has been reared in the cat by experiment. The most important of all the feline nematodes is a little worm, Olulanus tricuspis. Whilst the full-grown Olulanus only measures about 1/25 of an inch, its embryos are, for so small a creature, of almost gigantic size. The adult worm resides in the lining membrane of the stomach. The young of this parasite, like young Trichinae, are apt to migrate within the body of the feline host. They thus become encysted within the lungs and liver; but not in any other of the visceral organs. I have seen tens of thousands of them occupying the lungs; the infested animal perishing in consequence of the inflammatory action set up by their presence."

"A certain number of the embryos of Olulanus escape by the bowel of the host. These when swallowed by mice become encysted within the little rodents' muscles, very much after the fashion of Trichinae. So that one may say the mice become olulanised in the same way that we say people or animals become trichinised. All this has been experimentally proved by Leuckart, who fed a cat with olulanised mouse-flesh, and afterwards found the escaped young in the cat's alimentary canal. As, however, these encapsuled Olulani from the mouse had not become sufficiently advanced in their larval organisation [The tape-worms have two stages of existence, corresponding with the grub (or larval ) condition , and the perfect (or imago) state of the beetle or butterfly], Leuckart did not succeed in rearing the sexually mature parasite in the feline stomach. But there could be no doubt as to the ultimate destiny of the encapsuled young. Taenia crassicollis, which is common to both the tame and wild animal, is obtained by the cat from eating the livers of rats and mice, in which organ the larvae of the parasite reside. Taenia lineata is found only in the wild cat. Bothriocephalus decipiens is extremely rare, and only known in the house cat. The most common of all the species is Taenia elliptica." Taenia litterata exists in Iceland, but has also been found to infest the cheetah. It must therefore have a wide distribution.

One of the most remarkable instances of the destruction of cats by internal parasites is that recorded by Dr. Romano, of Gemona. The animals perished from colic, diarrhoea, epileptiform convulsions, wasting, and complete prostration. All these symptoms resulted from tapeworms (Taenia crassicollis) within the stomach. The outbreak occurred at Osoppo, where the fortress was over-run by rats. The vermin were combated by means of the cats, and thus the most successful felines became the earliest victims. Those which killed the rats and ate their livers swallowed the larvae of the Taenia, which latter, en revanche, brought about the destruction of their feline hosts. [See Cobbold's account (Parasites, i.c.), abridged from Romano's report in Giornale di med. vet. pratica for August, 1877.]

Another internal parasite is the worm-like animal Pentastoma denticulatum, which is a very aberrant member of the class Arachnida.

As to the cat's external parasites, they belong to two orders of the class Insecta (the order Aphaniptera, which contains the fleas, and the order Aptera, which is the order to which lice belong), and to the class Arachnida.

The cat's flea, Pullex cati, is very like the flea of the dog, but is one-fourth smaller. [See a paper by Dr. Alexander Laboulbene, on Les Metamorphoses de la Puce du Chat, in the Annales de la Soc. Entomologique de France, 5th series, vol. ii., 1872, p. 267, plate 13; also P. Megnin's Parasites, Masson, Paris, 1880, 63]

The louse-like animal of the family of the order as that which contains the lice of men and apes. It belongs to the family which contains the bird-lice. This parasite of the cat is called Trichodectes subrostratus. Its presence appears to cause no evil or inconvenience to its host. [See Megnin's Parasites, p- 81; also E. Piaget's fine work, Les Pediculines, 1880, p. 389, plate 31, fig, 9; and Henry Denny's Monographia Anoplororum Britanniae, 1842, p. 189.]

The arachnidan external parasite is a sort of itch insect, named Sarcoptes cati. [See P. Megnin's Parasites, pp. 174 and 409.] It is so small as hardly to be visible to the naked eye, but soon accumulates in vast numbers (to the cat's extreme annoyance), especially on the head, ears, eyelids, and face, where it causes swellings as well as baldness, beginning on the back of the neck and head. The paws, also, are apt to be affected, as naturally ensues from the infected animal's vain attempts to remove the cause of distress. Catarrh, diarrhoea, distemper, consumption, and insanity, are amongst the disorders from which cats are more or less apt to suffer.

CHAPTER XV. THE PEDIGREE AND ORIGIN OF THE CAT.

1. In the preceding chapters, the creature which has been selected as a type of mammalian back-boned animals, has been represented from various points of view. Its anatomy, physiology, psychology, taxonomy, and hexicology, have been successively treated of and the processes of individual development - the series of changes gone through by each individual of the cat species in reaching maturity - have been noticed. It only now remains to study the development of the species - that is to say, the "pedigree and origin," both of the cat considered as a species, and of the whole family of Felidae. To trace, as far as may be, the series of forms through which the existing group of cats may, with most reason, be believed to be descended, is, in this sense, to trace the cat's PEDIGREE. To investigate the probable causes which have evolved such forms and governed such process of development, is to investigate the cat's ORIGIN. .

2. That the various kinds of cats, and the whole cat group, have been evolved through the orderly operation of powers divinely implanted in the material creation, is a statement the truth of which can now, it seems, be hardly denied by any consistent persons who are not prepared to maintain that with the birth of every very exceptionally formed kitten a direct intervention of the First Cause takes place - an intervention such as does not otherwise occur in the orderly sequence of purely natural phenomena.

3. In order to investigate the question of the cat's pedigree, or phylogeny, its relation to other animals must be carefully borne in mind. In the thirteenth chapter it was pointed out that the cats are most nearly related to the Foussa (Cryptoprocta), and in a less degree to the other members of the family Viverridae. That they have a more general affinity to the whole sub-order Aeluroidea, and a still more general one to the whole order Carnivora, and ultimately to mammals and to all backboned animals - beyond which they can be said to have no special affinities at all.

The ancestors then of the cat family must be sought for amongst extinct forms of carnivora nearly related to the cats and civets; and the ancestors of such forms, again, must be sought amongst carnivorous mammals of more and more generalized structure till we come to creatures from which all mammals may be supposed to have descended. What animals were the progenitors of all mammals, is as yet a matter of pure speculation, and no positive judgment can be formed concerning it by any prudent naturalist. Certain probabilities, however, are evident as to this and cognate questions, but before adverting to these probabilities, it will be well to recall to mind some of those existing and extinct animals to which reference has already been made.

The most aberrant and generalised of all existing cats is the cheetah (Cynaelurus). But though this animal approaches the other carnivora in that its claws are less retractile than those of other cats, yet its tooth structure - its upper sectorial [See ante, p. 428.] - is exceptional in a way peculiarly its own. Neither Cynaelurus, therefore, nor its extinct ally Aelurodon, seems to help us towards tracing the cat's pedigree.

The flat-headed cat (F. planiceps), as has been shown (Fig. 177), approximates somewhat towards viverrine forms in the large size of its two-rooted first upper molar. But the extinct genera Pseudaelurus, Dinictis, and above all, Archaelurus, lead us decidedly towards more generalized forms, and render the descent of both Cryptoprocta and Felis from some common Viverrine root a matter highly probable. It must be borne in mind, however, that although these miocene and eocene cats were thus generalized in structure, yet a most extremely specialized form of cat, e.g., Eusmilus, existed at the same early period. But a very generalized kind of dog, Otocyon (which has four premolars and three molars on either side of each jaw), exists to-day side by side with dogs in which the number of teeth is much less, and which are more specialized. Yet naturalists do not on that account doubt but that Otocyon is a survivor of an earlier condition once common to the whole group of Cynoidea. Similarly the co-existence of Eusmilus with Dinictis or Archaelurus, does not detract from the probability that in the last two genera we have examples of the sort of animals whence all cats come.

Zoological and paleontological evidence, then, points to a viverrine origin of cats. ‘They seem either to be the very specialised descendants of ancient viverrine animals, or else both cats and viverrines are the diverging descendants of an ancient, more generalized form which existed in times anterior to the eocene, of which more generalized form no relics have as yet been discovered.

4. But the viverrine animals themselves, whence came they? In the existing creation, they are distinguished from the hyaenas by having two upper tubercular molars. But Professor Gaudry has discovered a form (named by him Ictitherium hipparionum, which, as we have seen [See ante, p. 507] is intermediate between the civets and hyaenas, and which, though it has two upper tubercular molars, has the hinder one quite rudimentary. [See Les Enchainements, p. 217, fig. 286.]

The civets, again, differ from the hyenas, in having a lower tubercular molar. But the same accomplished palaeontologist has discovered another fossil form, Hyaenictis [L.c., p. 218 , fig. 289.], which is hyaena-like, but yet has a rudimentary lower tubercular molar tooth.

But can we get any probable suggestion as to the origin of the cat's sub-order, the Ailuroidea? To be able at all to answer this question, we must glance at fossil forms related to the other carnivorous sub-orders. As regards the dogs (Cynoidea), the existing Otocyon, and the fossil genus Galecynus, lead down to forms of more general affinities which may have been dog ancestors. One such is Cynodictis (of the upper eocene), and which leads on to Cynodon, which is a still more generalized form, showing, in M. Gaudry's opinion, certain affinities to the civets.

Amongst the Arctoidea, the weasel family (Mustelidae) is - inasmuch as it is an arctoid family - distinguished by a variety of characters from the Viverride. Amongst the characters by which it differs is that of the absence of a second upper tubercular molar. In Lutrictis, however, we have a musteline form in which the second upper tubercular molar is present, though very small. In Proaelurus, also, we have a fossil with seeming musteline and viverrine affinities, yet with teeth which approximate to those of the cats.

The three sub-orders of carnivora being thus brought near together in the past, to what other group can they - i.e., can the whole order Carnivora - be affiliated? What may probably have been the cat's ancestors in a yet more remote degree than the unknown common stock whence the three existing suborders gradually diverged?

5. We have seen that the oldest tertiary mammal Arctocyon, has characters which give it some claim to be nearly allied to the progenitor of all true carnivora. But besides such characters, we find in it conspicuous defects of palatal ossification, and a low form of brain, which characters would seem to make it impossible that its claim to be an ancestor of the carnivora should be established. Moreover, we have seen that there are a number of eocene fossils such as Pterodon, Proviverra, Hyenodon, Palaeonyctis, &c., which agree in having (amongst other common characters) teeth which are not differentiated into premolars and an upper and lower sectorial tooth followed by one or more tubercular molars, but which, instead of this, had a series of sectorial teeth.

6. It has been contended by several eminent palaeontologists that these creatures were marsupial, and that all the first mammals were didelphous mammals - an opinion supported by the before explained resemblance of the mesozoic mammalian fossils to the existing marsupial Myrmecobius. If this view is correct, the pedigree of the cat descends through marsupial ancestors to the most generalized placental (or monodelphous) carnivora. It is here contended, however, that such was not the case, but, on the contrary, that it is probable that the cat never had a marsupial (or didelphous) ancestor at all, but that its progenitors (anterior to carnivores) were long-lost beasts of the Order Insectivora. It appears indeed to be probable that Insectivores and not-Marsupials were the parent forms of the great Mammalian stock [Mivart compares the dentition of placentals and marsupials. . .]

From this Insectivorous root then, the Marsupials, as we at present know them, must have diverged as a relatively unimportant branch, while the main stem of the mammalian tree was continued on by the successively arising placental forms of life. [. . .]

§7. The succession of mammalian carnivorous life - the mammalian portion of the cat's PEDIGREE - may then be represented as follows: - From unknown Insectivora-like mammals, two diverging series of forms may have started, one soon leading to Arctocyon (as the Insectivora-like root of the placental Carnivora), the other series developing such forms as Proviverra, Hyaenodon, and Pterodon, and continuing on the main stem through Gymnura-like creatures to the modern Insectivora. From this insectivorous stem we may imagine a side-shoot to be given off leading through Palaeonictis to forms like certain existing marsupials, and diverging into the American Didelphys and the analogous Australian Dasyurus. From Arctocyon we may conceive the great carnivorous branch - destined to quite surpass and overshadow the insectivorous stem - to divide into cynoid [dog] and arctoid [bear] branches. The former continuing on through Cynodon and Cynodictis, would lead up through Galecynus and forms like the existing Otocyon to the typical Canidae. The great arctoid branch may have given off a limb leading through Amphicyon, Hyaenarctos and kindred forms, to the existing Ursidae, and then continued on through Proaelurus and Lutrictis, as the Mustelidae. From some such form as Proaelurus the great Aeluroid sub-order may have started, and before continuing on, as the Viverridae, have given off a great branch to be developed, by bifurcating, into the Hyaenide, Cryptoproctidae and Felidae. The first family is the culmination of one division which passes through Ictitherium, and which gives off Proteles as a one-sided branchlet. The other division into which the Aeluroid branch bifurcates, continues on as the cats, first giving off however, near the bifurcation, the branchlet ending in Cryptoprocta. The proper feline branch then continues on through Archaelurus, Dinictis, Nimravus and Pseudaelurus, and then bifurcates. It ends in the typical genus Felis on one side - an aberrant twig being given off for Cynaelurus - while on the other side it continues on through Hoplophoneus, Pogonodon and Machaerodus + to the very specialized aberrant form Eusmilus. [The small lamina of bone which embraces the external carotid and so forms the "ali sphenoid canal" may well have independently disappeared and again, by reversion , reappeared in either subdivision of the feline branch.]

This hypothetical genealogy is only offered as a speculation, especially that part of it which represents conditions anterior to the evolution of the viverrine branch. It reposes mainly upon dental characters, and teeth are organs which not only might be expected to vary with varying conditions at life, but which we know to be sometimes very differently formed in different members of one and the same family. Yet we must accept their evidence or none. It is the only evidence which is largely available, nor will there be much danger of serious error in making use of it, if the caution here offered as to its defective nature be duly borne in mind.

8. [. . .] On the whole it seems probable that the Mammalia, and therefore the Cat, descended from some highly-developed, somewhat Reptile-like, Batrachian, [tailless amphibian] of which no trace has yet been found. The yet more remote ancestor of such Batrachian will have to be sought amongst extinct and unknown fishes [. . .]

9. The foregoing suggestions are offered as results which seem to present themselves to the inquirer into the past history of animal life, and into the cat's pedigree.

The next question refers to the cat's origin. This second question refers, as before said, to the probable causes which have determined that process of evolution which has, in fact, taken place. It is a question of causation: It investigates the "how" and the "why" of the origin of the cat's species, and - as we cannot suppose that the cat is different in this respect from other animals - the cause of the origin of species generally. Evidently that cause must lie either within or without the living organisms which are evolved, unless it be partly within them and partly external to them.

We may conceive the evolution of new specific forms to have been brought about in one or other of the six following ways. The change may have been due: -

(1) Entirely to the action of surrounding agencies upon organisms which have merely a passive capacity for being indefinitely varied in all directions, but which have no positive inherent tendencies to change or vary, whether definitely or indefinitely;
(2) Entirely to innate tendencies in each organism to change in certain directions;
(3) Partly to innate tendencies to vary indefinitely in all directions, and partly to limiting tendencies of surrounding conditions, which check variations except in such directions as may happen to be accidentally favourable to the organisms which vary;
(4) Partly to innate tendencies to vary indefinitely in all directions, and partly to external influences which not only limit but actively stimulate and promote variation;
(5) Partly to tendencies, inherent in organisms, to change definitely in certain directions, and partly to external influences acting only by restriction and limitation on variation;
(6) Partly to innate tendencies to change definitely in certain directions, and partly to external influences which, in some respects act restrictively, and in other respects act as a stimulus to transformation.

The writer has elsewhere stated at length his reasons for concluding that the genesis of new species is due mainly to an internal cause, which may be stimulated and aided, or may be more or less restricted, by the action of surrounding conditions. [See the "Genesis of Species, and also Chapters VIII., IX., X., and XIV., of "Lessons from Nature."]

The notion that the origin of species is due to "Natural Selection," is a crude and inadequate conception which has been welcomed by many persons on account of its apparent simplicity, and has been eagerly accepted by others on account of its supposed fatal effects on a belief in Divine creation. Its anti-theological character has been declared by a conspicuous English advocate, to be "one of its greatest merits," while it has been made use of as a fundamental dogma in the various polemical works of Professor Haeckel. The present author's views as to "Natural Selection" having been already fully expressed in former works, it is not thought necessary that further space should here be occupied by their repetition.

10. Before entering upon the question of "Origin," a few words of preliminary explanation seem to be needed. Obviously before we can enter profitably upon the discussion of any proposition, we must clearly understand its terms, and it would be a useless task to discuss the origin of anything as to the very existence of which we may have reason to doubt. Before enquiring into the origin of species, it will be well to make sure what we mean by a "species," and that there really is any such thing. [Mivart discusses the IDEA of species, genus, family etc. and of gradual change over generations.]

11. Now all our knowledge being derived from experience, we can only (revelation apart) judge of things as they have been, by things as they are; and as every animal is now the product of a parent organism more or less like it, so the natural inference with regard to any antecedent animal, is that it also was the product of a parent organism more or less like it. But it may be said: "this analogy does not apply to the embodiment of a new species, because" (it may be asserted) we never see the origin of such an embodiment - we never see anything like a change of species: we cannot, therefore, from our present experience, even guess what may have been the mode of appearance of a concrete entity embodying an idea different from that embodied by the entity which preceded it."

This assertion, however, is here denied, while it is on the contrary affirmed that we do see - as far as human eye ever can see or ever could have seen - the origin of concrete embodiments of ideas which are not only as distinct as one species from another, but as distinct as genera, families, orders, classes, and even kingdoms, one from another. It is also here contended that we may see this daily, even in the case of the cat.

It was this consideration - an anticipation of the argument here to be advanced - which caused the facts, and the significance of the facts, of the cat's embryonic development to have been so dwelt upon, as they have been in the tenth chapter of this book. Tor the incipient embryo of the cat, is no cat: it is not even an animal. Its existence is merely vegetal, and the successive ideas which it embodies (in the course of its evolution) approximate only by degrees to that embodied by the adult animal. The embryo which is to become a cat, successively embodies ideas which are analogous to, though they are never identical with, those which are manifested in rhizopods, sponges, worms, fishes, batrachians and other inferior animal natures. We see these changes as facts; the actual "how," the intimate mode in which the living idea or form is embodied in and identified with the matter it informs, is one of those impenetrable secrets of nature for ever closed to human ken, as the mode in which - the actual "how'" - the mind is enabled to know itself and things external to it, is closed to human ken. None the less, everyone who admits that the living cat when adult is informed by a psychical principle of individuation, may be called upon also to admit that its developing embryo is successively informed by psychical principles of individuation of different orders - orders which present no trifling analogy to different orders of animals which exist permanently. After the true cat form has been once attained, such changes cease, and, till death, the cat remains a cat simply. [. . .]

12. According to our present experience then, we ought to anticipate that any new ideal embodiment - any new specific form would make its appearance during the period of embryonic life, and that if a new cat-species is to appear, it will appear as a kitten which differs more or less markedly from its parents. Such a birth is by no means against experience. It is not merely that minute changes occur - no two individual animals being absolutely alike - but every now and then a marked variation takes place, as in the case of the kitten seen by Mr. Birkett.[ Amongst new organic forms known to have been suddenly evolved are: The black-shouldered peacock, new forms of wild deer . . .] Such variations also are capable of being transmitted to the offspring of the animals in which they first arise.

But we may even gather some evidence in favour of the origin of species by considerable and not minute changes, from the special subject of this work - the group of Cats. Species of Machaerodus, like Smilodon, were, as we have seen, unable to kill by biting on account of the enormous length of their upper canines, which could only be used as daggers, the mouth being closed. All existing feline animals, including the long-tailed, clouded tiger (F. macrocelis), bite, and are unable to use their canines as daggers. Now, if the canines of Machaerodus Smilodon had been formed by minute increase in successive generations, the creatures would at one time have been in a condition such that their teeth were too long to be conveniently used for biting, while they were not yet long enough to be efficiently used as daggers. It is true that there are different species of Machaerodus with teeth of very different lengths, and it is also true that before the canines became so long as to be quite useless for biting, they would begin to be slightly useful as daggers. Still the fact remains that a highly inconvenient transitional stage of existence must have been passed through, if evolutionary changes were always minute changes.

[Professor Cope has said (see Proceedings of the Acad: of Nat. Sc. of Philadelphia for July 8, 1879): - "l think there can be no doubt that the huge canines in the Smilodons must have prevented the biting off of flesh from large pieces, so as to greatly interfere with feeding. . . . The size of the canines is such as to prevent their use as cutting instruments, excepting with the mouth closed, for the latter could not have been opened sufficiently to allow any object to enter it from the front. Even were it opened so far as to allow the mandible to pass behind the apices of the canines, there would appear to be some risk of the latter's becoming caught on the point of one or the other canine." As to the cause of the disappearance of this highly specialized form of life, Professor Flower has observed (in a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution on March 10, 1876): - "It may have been a case of over-specialization, in which the development of the carnivorous type of dentition, gradually accumulating in intensity . . . , became at last a successive inheritance so exaggerated that its growth outran its usefulness of purpose. Such appears to be constantly the fate of forms which have become overspecialized, or in which the development of one part has run on in one particular direction out of due proportion to the rest of the organization. We know that it is quite possible, by artificial selection, to produce animals with one particular part developed even detrimentally to the entire economy of the creature, and it really seems as if something of the same kind not unfrequently occurs in nature." It is indeed true that for the perfection of any living creature there is need of harmony between its various powers, and a moral may be drawn from the above instance as to the dangers likely to result to any race of mankind from a one-sided, ill-balanced development of those intellectual powers which give man supremacy over all lower forms of life.]

If, however, a sudden and considerable change took place, this difficulty, in the way of evolution, would be completely evaded . But what is here said of Machaerodus, has a wide application. Were not forms of life evolved by a process which, compared with their duration , is "sudden," the world would be a zoological chaos. But such is not the case. A multitude of undoubtedly stable and plainly distinct kinds exist now, and thence we may conclude that stable and distinct kinds always existed , however difficult the definition of some forms may be in certain cases.

[Mivart discusses at great length the role of the Divine i.e. whether some external purpose drives evolution to a precise and predetermined end as well as an internal force (psychogenesis), and that it is not purely chance and haphazard minute changes. He tries to reconcile evolution with the prevailing religious culture of his time.]

[. . .]We see then that the feline form is the most complete expression yet realized of that exemplar ideal which is less fully expressed by the carnivorous order considered as a whole. Thus viewed, the creatures to the special consideration of which this work is devoted, are seen to exhibit multiform relations of a very elevated character. Evolved through the action of antecedent organisms (of increasing specialization of structure) as their efficient cause, they have for their final cause, the external realization in the material creation of one of those prototypal ideas which are the several exemplar causes of the world of organic life, and which have eternally preceded every creative act. Interesting then as the animals which have here occupied us are to the zoologist, the physiologist, the geographer, the geologist, and the psychologist, they are most of all interesting to the philosopher. [. . . ]

20. To help on its progress, no course is perhaps more useful than that of the careful study of a succession of types belonging to different families of living beings. Amongst the multitude of such groups, that one has been here selected for examination which has been deemed most likely to be useful to the earnest enquirer in biological science who is beginning such a course of study. No more complete example of a perfectly organized living being can well be found, than that supplied by a member of what has no inconsiderable claims to be regarded as the highest mammalian family - the family Felidae.