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No foot had yet become adapted to swift running by a decrease in the number of digits and by lifting the heel and sole so that only the toes touch the ground, a tread called DIGITIGRADE. Nor was there yet any foot like that of the cats, with sharp retractile claws adapted to seizing and tearing the prey. The teeth also were primitive in type and of full number.
This is not the place to examine the merits of the different proofs brought in favor of each argument; and I hasten to a brief notice of some of those which subsist independently of human assistance. All dogs, wild or tame, walk upon their toes with a firm, elastic gait, and their toes are not retractile.
It should be borne in mind, however, that the contact surfaces and insulated surfaces on wheel W' are together equal in number to the characters on the type-wheels, but the retractile spring of TM does half the work of operating the escapement.
Civets, genets, and ichneumons are small as compared with most cats; they are fairly well distinguished by skull and tooth characters; their claws are never fully retractile, and many have scent glands, as in the civets. No member of this family is American.
Some of them use the burrows of other animals for their lair, which they can enlarge for themselves as they are provided with burrowing claws. They are not tree-climbers, as their claws are not sufficiently retractile for that. It is in their teeth their main dependence lies, and in the great strength of their jaws.
In this position he is quite at ease, while his long claws are disposed of in a manner to render them harmless to him and are prevented from becoming dull and worn, like those of the dog, which would inevitably be the case did their points come in actual contact with the ground; for his claws have not that retractile power which is given to animals of the feline species, by which they are enabled to preserve the sharpness of their claws on the most flinty path.
The cheetah or hunting leopard is a distinct species, and although classed among the leopards, it is altogether different, both in habits and appearance; the claws, although rather long, are not retractile, neither are they curved to the same extent as all others of the genus Felis, but they resemble somewhat the toe-nails of the dog.
When we reflect on the numbers of these fish, the largest and most voracious of which are only four or five inches long, on the triangular form of their sharp and cutting teeth, and on the amplitude of their retractile mouths, we need not be surprised at the fear which the caribe excites in the inhabitants of the banks of the Apure and the Orinoco.
When a dog chases a cat and corners it, the cat turns and defends itself with its claws. Once upon a time, many, many hundred years ago, the dog did use its claws; they were then retractile. But the dog stopped using its claws; then they became rigid. The dog lost the power of drawing in its claws.
III. The members of the Cat Tribe have retractile claws. The Dog Tribe's claws are rigid and stiff; that is, they are thrust out all the time. The members of the Dog Tribe do not use their claws in seizing or holding their prey; they hold the prey in their jaws. IV. All of the Cat Tribe have padded paws: they have them for many reasons, which I have mentioned on pages 71-72.
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