George Mivart, who gives altogether the most comprehensive
and exhaustive scientific study to the cat ever published, and whose
book on the cat is an excellent work for the earnest beginner in the
study of biological science. He says no more complete example can be
found of a perfectly organized living being than that supplied by the
highest mammalian family--_Felidae_.
"On the whole," he sums up, "it seems probable that the mammalia, and
therefore the cat, descends from some highly developed, somewhat
reptile-like batrachian of which no trace has been found."
Away back in the eighth century of the Hegira, an Arab naturalist gives
this account of the creation of the cat: "When, as the Arab relates,
Noah made a couple of each animal to enter the ark, his companions and
family asked, 'What security can you give us and the other animals, so
long as the lion dwells with us on this narrow vessel?' Then Noah betook
himself to prayer, and entreated the Lord God. Immediately fever came
down from heaven and seized upon the king of beasts." This was the
origin of fever. But constituents in Noah's time, as now, were
ungrateful; and no sooner was the lion disposed of, than the mouse was
discovered to be an object of suspicion. They complained that there
would be no safety for provisions or clothing. "And so Noah renewed his
supplication to the Most High, the lion sneezed, and a cat ran out of
his nostrils.
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