CASTRO DEL RIO, a town in the province of Cordoba, Spain, 16 miles S. E. of the town of that name. It is picturesquely located on a slope above the Guadajoz, and is a prosperous and thriving town, with handsome private houses and public buildings. Its prin cipal manufactures are linen, woolen, and earthen ware. It is an important market for the agricultural produce of the surrounding district. It has a beau tiful church, two colleges, a hospital, and several convents. Pop. about 12,000.
CAT, the Felis calm ferus, a species of the genus Pais. The cat is originally from the European forests. In its wild state it differs from the domestic animal in having a shorter tail, a flatter and larger head, and stronger limbs. Its color is grayish-brown, with darker, transverse undulations. Its manners resemble those of the lynx, living in woods, and preying on young hares, birds, and a variety of other animals, which it seizes by surprise. At what period cats became inmates of human habitations, it is scarcely possible, at this period, to determine, but there is good reason to believe that they were at first domesticated in Egypt. The cat belongs to a genus better armed for the destruction of animal life than all other quadrupeds. The short and powerful jaws, moved by vigorous muscles, are supplied with most formidable trenchant teeth; a cunning disposition, combined with nocturnal habits and much patience in pursuit, gives them great advantages over their prey; and their keen, lacerat ing claws enable them to inflict a certain death-blow. All animals considerably
weaker than themselves prove objects of pursuit; but the mouse is their favorite game; for which they will patiently wait for a whole day till the victim comes within reach, when they seize it with a bound and after playing with it, put it to death. The pupil of the eye in most animals is capable of but a small degree of contraction and dilatation; it enlarges a little in the dark, and contracts when the light pours upon it too profusely; but in the eyes of cats, this contraction and dilatation is so considerable that the pupil, which by day appears narrow and small, by night expands over the whole surface of the eye-ball, and gives the eyes a luminous appearance. By means of this peculiar structure, their eyes are better adapted for vision at night than in the daytime; and they are thus fitted for discovering and surprising their prey. Personally, the cat is a very cleanly animal. The cat goes with young for 63 days and brings forth from three to six at a litter, which remain blind for nine days. The varieties of this animal in a domestic state are very numerous.