The Portland daily press., 1898-01-12
New York SUM-

New YORK sun.
That there is Widespread interest
among men, women, and children on the
subject of cats was attested by the big
assemblsge that meo in the great lecture
hall of the American Museum of Natural
History last Thursday night TO hear
Daniel Giraud Elliot, L. r. S., the
Curator of Zoology in the Field Colum.
bian Museum, tell the story "Cats, and
the Lands They Inhabit." The lecture
was the drst of the fifth annual course of
the Linnaean Society of New York city.
In his recital Mr.. Elliott took his audi
ence on a journey around the world, and
he describes scenery and people as well as
cats. He<tslked of both wild and domes-
tic cats, and brilliant bits of description
were embelIished by beautiful pictures OF
cats and the localities in which they
dwelt.
Mr. Elliot said at the outset that the
Felidae. or cat family. fulfilled most
important part in natures economy, and
also comprised in its wild members the
most powerful of existing animals of
prey. including the lion, tiger, and leop-
ard. The cat family, he added, is of very
ancient lineage, feline remains having
been procured in the eocene deposits of
both hemispheres, foreshadowing the
creature of our own time. The Old
World has now the largest number of
living cats, but recent discoveries in this
country may raise doubt whether in the
be Of %ba fhis cn.nn11pG
New World did not surpass the old in the
varietysand number of its catlike animals.
These early inhabitants, of course, diff
cred from existing species, but the
specialized forms of early times have pro-
gressed toward higher and higher type
until they finally attained the highly Or
ganized cat of our own times.
ssIn the miocene PERIOD" said DIR.
Elliot, slived the great sabre e-toothed
cats, which continued to exist down to
modern times. They derived their name
from tho heightened and curved canine
teeth, which were capable of inflioting
dreadful wounds on their prey. In some
of these species these teeth were so enor-
lnously developed that the points of the
upper teeth met those of the lower teeth
even when the jaws were opened to their
fullest extent. They were SO great in
Size. III 1aCU, 6uO pIOJOCUSl tlOWAndIo pO
far that the cat was quite incapable OF
seiZing any object with its teeth, and
could only use them in dealing a down
ward dagger-like stab, similar to that de-
liyared by the tusk of the walrus. be-
lieye that the species was rendered ex-
tinct by starvation. This animal shows
clearly that since early geological times
cats passed an existence of rapine and
slaughter and fulfilled5their mission by
keeping the abundant animal life about
them from undue expansion. They were
the butchers of the mammalian world
Modern times afford many and varied
species of cats. In the land where dwelt
the sabre -toothed tiger cats of old, along
the Straits of Magellan, is found now the
panpas cat, remarkable for it's curiously
striped coat of various colors, and
Geoffroy's cat, q spotted animal addicted
TO a life in the trees. In the jungtes OF
the Amazon we find the most powerful
cat of the North American continent, the
jaguar, distinguished by the arrangement
of the spots like SO many rosettes, with
small black spot in the centre OF each
series of spots. This is type of the cat
that does not fear water and which read
lily sWims rivers, and is noted for it's pe-
culiar taste in the matter of prey, attack
ing white man only when there is no
Dog OF negro or Indian accessible to sat
fsfy it's hunger. Mexico gives us the
slender cat, with heightened body like
/. weasel and very long tail. These
animals are found as far south as Para
quay Another species is the ocelot,
remarkable for its coloring and mark
ings.
"The largest cat Of the New World is
the puma, sometimes called the "Ameri-
can iion,' and found in the swalnps and
mountain Businesses OF both North and
South America. 1t has a tawny coat, but
the young are covered with spots.
The lynx cat is an animal noted for its
short tail and peculiar tufts upon the
ears. 1t is known as the American wild
cat, "a nd varies greatly in the colorlng
and marking Of its fur. The wildcat is
also found in Scotland and extends
throughout Western Europe and Northern
Asia, and is one of the ancestors of the
domestic cat. One of the handsomest of
the lynx species is found in Spain and is
notable for it's spotted coat and long
whiskers. Northern Europe furnishes the
red lynx, beautiful animal that preys
upon fawns, hares, and grouse and which
also kills sheep just efor amusement In
the Hinalayas, at the lofty elevation of
Is, ,00U feet as high an altitude as an ami
NAL can exist in, we find the beautiful
''snow leopard, an animal rarely seen
by man, however, as it seldom ventures
forth infdaylight. 1t preys upon wild and
uOAASstlO SHCoP Jus NooS -" "Sos.SN man
Another cat found in high latitudes is
thelbushy tailed red-spotted cat, the size
of the domestic cat and possessing skin
that issbrilliantly marked.
Eastern Asia furnishes the Pallas
Thibetan cat, with its long, ouriously
marked, and bushy tail-a small animal
that was probably the ancestor to the
modern domestic Angora. In the tea
district of India lives the celebrated Ben
gsI CAT. a family that display such q
diversity of coat that no two individuals
OF the family are ever alike. 1t is perfect
II untamable, however.
"At the headwaters of the Ganges is
found the second Of the cat species that
does not dread water, and which is
known as the fishing catsof India. 1t
wanders along the bank and catches fish
for its food in shallow water. 1t is very
savage, nearly three feet long, and very