We see in this country considerable diversity in size, some in the
proportions of the body, and extreme variability in colouring. I have only
lately attended to this subject, but have already heard of some singular
cases of variation; one of a cat born in the West Indies toothless, and
remaining so all its life. Mr. Tegetmeier has shown me the skull of a
female cat with its canines so much developed that they protruded uncovered
beyond the lips; the tooth with the fang being .95, and the part projecting
from the gum .6 of an inch in length. I have heard of several families of
six-toed cats, in one of which the peculiarity had been transmitted for at
least three generations. The tail varies greatly in length; I have seen a
cat which always carried its tail flat on its back when pleased. The ears
vary in shape, and certain strains, in England, inherit a pencil-like tuft
of hairs, above a quarter of an inch in length, on the tips of their ears;
and this same peculiarity, according to Mr. Blyth, characterises some cats
in India. The great variability in the length of the tail and the lynx-like
tufts of hairs on the ears are apparently analogous to differences in
certain wild species of the genus. A much more important difference,
according to Daubenton (1/99. Quoted by Isid. Geoffroy 'Hist. Nat. Gen.'
tome 3 page 427.), is that the intestines of domestic cats are wider, and a
third longer, than in wild cats of the same size; and this apparently has
been by their less strictly carnivorous diet.
CHAPTER 1.II.
HORSES AND ASSES.
HORSE.
DIFFERENCES IN THE BREEDS.
INDIVIDUAL VARIABILITY OF.
DIRECT EFFECTS OF THE CONDITIONS OF LIFE.
CAN WITHSTAND MUCH COLD.
BREEDS MUCH MODIFIED BY SELECTION.
COLOURS OF THE HORSE.
DAPPLING.
DARK STRIPES ON THE SPINE, LEGS, SHOULDERS, AND FOREHEAD.
DUN-COLOURED HORSES MOST FREQUENTLY STRIPED.
STRIPES PROBABLY DUE TO REVERSION TO THE PRIMITIVE STATE OF THE HORSE.
ASSES.
BREEDS OF.
COLOUR OF.
LEG- AND SHOULDER-STRIPES.
SHOULDER-STRIPES SOMETIMES ABSENT, SOMETIMES FORKED.
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