47. The LEOPARD (Felis leopardus) is an animal of the cat tribe, about four feet in length, of yellowish colour, and marked with numerous annular spots.
It is an inhabitant of Senegal, Guinea, and most parts of Africa; and has considerable resemblance, both in habit and appearance, to the panther.
Leopards' skins are much esteemed in Europe. They seldom exceed four feet in length; and should be chosen large, of lively yellow colour, marked on the back and sides with annular spots, the belly covered with longish white hairs, and with large and oblong spots on the tail. Their use is for hammer-cloths, muffs, the trimmings of ladies' dresses, and other purposes. Some of the most valuable of these skins sell for ten guineas each and upwards. The flesh of the leopard is said, by Kolben, to be white and of good flavour.
48. The COMMON CAT (Felis catus), in its wild state, is distinguished from all the animals of the same tribe by having its tail marked with rings of different coloured hair.
The body of the wild cat is marked with dusky stripes, of which three on the top of the back are lengthwise, whilst those on the sides are transverse and somewhat curved. Domestic cats are marked very variously; some are grey and striped, others variegated with black, white, and orange, and others are entirely black or white.
Cats are found wild in woods of Europe, Asia, and America.
The savage disposition and great size of the wild cats render them the most formidable wild animals which are now left in Great Britain. In the southern and midland parts of England they have all been long destroyed; but, in the woods which border the lakes of Westmoreland and Cumberland, and in several of the mountainous parts of Scotland, they are yet occasionally found. They have their lodgments in hollow trees, in the fissures of the rocks, and in deep and narrow holes on the face of dreadful precipices; from which, during the night chiefly, they issue forth in search of prey. This consists of hares, rabbits, and other quadrupeds, and also of various kinds of birds. Wild cats are caught in traps, more for the purpose of destroying them on account of the ravages they commit, than for any uses to which they can be converted. Their skins were formerly in request as fur for the lining of robes and other garments; though they do not appear to have been held in much esteem.
The domestic cat (Fig. 3) is a subdued variety of the wild species; and although it still partakes, in some degree, of the native ferocity of its original, it is a clean and useful inmate in our houses. By the ancient Egyptians cats were considered objects of sacred veneration; it was accounted a capital crime wilfully to kill one of them, and whoever even accidentally killed one was liable to severe punishment. We are informed by Herodotus, the Greek historian, that, whenever a cat died a natural death, the inhabitants of the house were accustomed to shave their eye-brows in token of sorrow, and the animal so dying was embalmed and nobly interred. The Turks entertain a sacred respect for cats; and the ancient Britons so greatly esteemed them that, in the tenth century, their price was inserted even in the laws of the land: a kitten, before it could see, having been rated at a penny (equal to at least five shillings of present money); as soon as proof could be had of its having caught a mouse, the price was raised to two-pence; and a tolerably good mouser was considered worth four-pence.
These animals possess a very acute sense both of sight and smell; and by the peculiar structure of their eyes, which sparkle in the dark, they are able to discover their prey, such as rats and mice, as well in the night as during the day; and a cat, that is a good mouser, will soon clear a house of these troublesome little quadrupeds. Cats should not, however, either be much handled or too well fed, if kept for this purpose; as, in this case, they become indolent and disinclined to exert themselves.
Useful as cats are to us, they are, in some respects, unpleasant. If injured or offended, they suddenly express their resentment by scratching and biting, and sometimes with great fury. Constantly bent on theft and rapine, they are never to be trusted in the same room with provisions that are within their reach; and although many persons do not hesitate to let them sleep on their beds, it is a practice much better avoided, as the exhalation from their bodies is considered to be injurious.