Page:Natural History (1848).djvu/81

Rh gions; in the hotter parts of the world, the species are very numerous, and many of them attain great size and power. The Lion, the Tiger, and the Jaguar are the most formidable of the bestial enemies of man.

As the large Family before us contains but one satisfactorily established genus, its distinctive characters are those already enumerated. ‘The dental system is thus expressed:—inc. $6⁄6$; can. $1—1⁄1—1$; mol. $4—4⁄3—3$=30.

Though the great Cats of the tropics, as the Lions, the Tigers, and the Leopards, afford many points of interest, and though from their size, power, and ferocity, and the beauty of many of them, their history is always attractive, we pur- pose, in conformity with our design to illustrate this work as much as possible by species indigenous to or naturalized in the British Islands, to select the common domestic Cat, as the example of this the most typical group of carnivorous quadrupeds.

There is a species of wild Cat (Felis catus, .) common in the forests of Europe, and still found in some numbers in the northern parts of this country, of formidable strength and ferocity ; and for a long time, our common Cat was believed to be this species in domestication. For many important reasons this opinion has been relinquished by modern naturalists, and the origin of this favourite animal has been sought elsewhere. It is an interesting fact, that, ata very early period, a domestic Cat was in the possession of the Egyptians, and, from their paintings and sculptures, we