76 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE,

lady was sittimg working in her drawing-room, and the cat
and bird were a short distance off. Suddenly, without a
moment’s deliberation, the cat, to the great astonishment of
the lady, uttered a loud growl, and then, seizing her little
playmate in her mouth, darted off with it to a place of safety.
A strange cat had entered the room and the friendly one had
adopted this plan of saving the bird from the enemy. A
still more remarkable illustration of the intelligence of a cat
is given by De la Croix as follows: “I once saw,” says he,
“a lecturer upon experimental philosophy place a cat under
the glass receiver of an air-pump, for the purpose of demon-
strating that very certain fact, that life cannot be supported
without air and respiration. The lecturer had already made
several strokes with the piston, in order to exhaust the receiver
of its air, when the animal, who began to feel herself very
uncomfortable in the rarefied atmosphere, was fortunate enough
to discover the source from which her uneasiness proceeded.
She placed her paw upon the hole through which the air
escaped, and thus prevented any more from passing out of
the receiver. All the exertions of the philosopher were now
unavailing ; in vain he drew the piston; the cat’s paw effect-
ually prevented its operation. Hoping to effect his purpose,
he let air again into the receiver, which, as soon as the cat
perceived, she withdrew her paw from the aperture; but
whenever he attempted to exhaust the receiver, she applied
her paw as before. All the spectators clapped their hands
in admiration of the wonderful sagacity of the animal, and the
lecturer found himself under the necessity of liberating her,
and substituting in her place another, that possessed less pene-
tration, and enabled him to exhibit the cruel experiment.”
The Lynx, The several species of the Lynx belong to the
genus Lyncus, the principle varieties of which are the Canada
Lynx, and the European Lynx. The Lynx has short legs,
and is generally about the size of a fox, attaining often to
three feet in length Jt preys upon small quadripeds and