CASTERIL, or CASTREL, _s._ A mean or degenerate kind of hawk. CAT, _s._ A domestic animal that catches mice. The cat is a faithless domestic; though gentle and frolicsome when young, they even then possess an innate cunning, and perverse disposition, which age increases, and education only serves to conceal. The form and temperament of the cat’s body perfectly correspond with his disposition; he is handsome, light, adroit, cleanly, and voluptuous; he loves ease, and searches out the softest places for rest and repose. The cat is very amorous. The passion of the female continues nine or ten days, and commonly happens only twice a year, in the spring and autumn, but sometimes three and even four times. They go with young 55 or 56 days, and they usually have from four to six at a litter. As the males are apt to devour their progeny, the females commonly conceal themselves when they litter, and if suspicious of a discovery, they carry their young ones away in their mouths and hide them in holes or inaccessible places. After suckling them a few weeks, the old one takes them mice or small birds, to accustom them to eat flesh; but by an unaccountable caprice, these very mothers so tender and careful, become sometimes so cruel and unnatural, as to devour their offspring themselves. Cats are without docility, and their scent, which, in the dog is so eminent a quality, is very indifferent, and therefore they hunt by the eye only; neither do they properly pursue, but rather lie in wait and attack the animals by surprise; and after having played with, and tormented them a long time, they kill them without any necessity, even when well fed, and in no want of prey to satisfy their appetites. The most immediate physical cause of their inclination to seize other animals by surprise, comes from the advantage they receive from the particular formation of their eyes. The pupil in man, and many other animals, is capable of a certain degree of contraction and dilation; it enlarges a little when the light is faint, and contracts when it becomes too strong; in cats and nocturnal birds, as owls, &c., this contraction and dilation is so considerable that the pupil, which in the dark is large and round, becomes in the day long and narrow like a line; and therefore these animals see better in the night than in the day. There is a perpetual contraction in the eye of the cat during the day, and it is only by a great effort that he can see in a strong light, whereas, in the twilight, the pupil resumes its natural form; he sees perfectly, and profits from this superiority to know, attack, and surprise his prey.