THE EGYPTIAN CAT In this we have a most interesting animal, not only because it seems certain that it is the ancestor of the cats we keep now as pets, but also because in days of old the people of Egypt used to venerate it, just as they also did the Arabian baboon. In every way they treated it with the greatest possible honor. Indeed, to kill a cat, in those days, was a far more serious offence than to kill a man, and if the offender was discovered he was certainly made to pay the penalty with his life. And when the animal died its body was carefully embalmed and wrapped in spices, and was then solemnly buried in the tombs of the kings. If you ever go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, or to the Boston Museum, you may see the mummied remains of some of the very cats which were venerated by the people of Egypt five thousand years ago. In the British Museum is an old painting which is as interesting, although in a different way. For it shows us that, while the ancient Egyptians held the cat in such high honor, they expected it to make itself useful in return. The picture represents a hunter and his family going out on an expedition in search of water-birds, and from it we learn that they would embark in a boat with several decoy birds, together with a carefully trained cat. They would then push off into the great beds of tall reeds which fringed the sides of the river, and sit in the boat while the cat went and caught birds for them, which were attracted within reach by the decoys. In a picture we have seen, the cat is represented with one bird in her mouth, another in her fore paws, and a third between her hind paws; so that if she got all three back to the boat, she must have been a very clever cat. This animal is sometimes known as the Caffre cat, and it is found wild in almost all parts of Africa, and also in Syria and Arabia. In size it is about as big as a rather large domestic cat, and in color is generally yellowish gray, with a few faint stripes across the back and several darker ones on the hind quarters, while the tail is marked with black rings and always has a black tip. THE WILDCAT The true wildcat is a European animal. In the United States, what is commonly called a wildcat is really a species of lynx--the bay lynx--often called bobcat. It is found in nearly all the States east of the Mississippi River that have large forests. If you were to see a real wildcat in captivity, you would most likely think that it looked a very gentle creature. But in reality it is one of the fiercest and most savage of all living animals, and no matter how kindly it is treated it never seems to become tame.