FELIDIE, fe'li-de, the cat family, which contains the most highly developed of the order Carnivora. The characters of the family are the possession of a slender, extremely flexible body of great muscular power; the limbs five toed, the thumb of the anterior limbs not reach ing the ground; the skull relatively short, the facial portion much shortened, very broad, and giving, by its capacious zygomatic arches, a rounder outline, and abundant space for the powerful muscles which move the lower jaw. The incisors are three in number on each side, above and below; the powerful canines are trenchant on both edges, and are sometimes grooved; the premolars are three above and two below, the molars one above and below — in all, 30 teeth. The premolars are laterally com pressed, the third upper tooth, the carnassial, or sectorial premolar, having only a minute inner tubercle. All are digitigrade. The divisions as given by Carus are Sub-genus 1. Felis. Claws retractile; limbs low; tail as long as the body. A. Old World forms. (a) Lions (F. leo). Color uniform; a mane; Africa and western Asia. (b) Tigers (F. tigris). No name; body striped; whole of Asia, from the Altai and Amur to Java and the Cauccasus. (c) Leop ards (F. pardus). Large species, with spots or rings, and round pupils; Africa and South Asia. (d) Serval (F. serval). Small spotted species; South Africa. (e) Cats (F. catus). Small, not spotted, sometimes striped; pupils elliptic vertical. B. New World forms. (a) Leonine. Color uniform, no mane. Puma (F. concolor). (b) Leopard-like. Jaguar (F. onca). Sub-genus 2. Cynailurus. Claws not quite re tractile. Hair on neck and between shoulders, long, manelike. Cheetah (F. jubata); Africa and South Asia. Sub-genus 3. Lynx. With ear-tufts and short tails. A. Old World forms. Caracal (F. caracal) and chaus; South Asia and Africa. B. New World forms. Canadian lynx (F. canadensis); Red cat (F. fasciata); Bay lynx (F. rufus)—all in North America. The family was represented in Tertiary times by the cave-tiger (F. spelea); an American species (F. protopanther) ; and an Indian (F. cristata). Machoirodus, within its enormous sabre-like upper canine, ranged from Miocene to Pleistocene times in Europe.
In addition to this formidable apparatus of cutting-teeth, the tongue is covered with small recurved prickles by which they can clean from the bones of their prey every particle of flesh.
There are no quadrupeds in which the nuts-. des of the jaws and limbs are more fully devel oped. The skeleton presents a light hut well built mechanism; the bones, though slender, are extremely compact; the trunk, having to con tain the simple digestive apparatus requisite for the assimilation of highly organized animal food, is comparatively slender, and flattened at the sides. The muscular forces are thus en abled to carry the light body along by extensive bounds, and thus it is that the larger felines generally make their attack. The five toes of the fore-feet and the four toes of the hind-feet of cats are armed with very strong, hooked, sharp claws, which are preserved from being blunted by a peculiar arrangement of the pha langes. For this purpose the claw-joint of each toe is drawn back by ligaments attached to the penultimate joint, till it assumes habitually a perpendicular position, when the claw which it supports is completely retracted within a sort of sheath, and is entirely concealed by the fur. When, however, the animal springs• on its prey, the tendons of the flexor muscles of the toes, overcoming the elasticity of the retractile liga ments, pull forward the claws, and they are ready to be buried, in the flesh of the victim, The lower surface of the foot is furnished with thick ball-like pads of the epidermis, on which the animal walks; this gives them the noiseless tread peculiar to this family.
Members of the cat family hunt in the and, consequently, while escaping ob servation, require every ray of light that can be made available. The pupil is a long, vertical fissure; but this only obtains among the smaller genera; in all of the family above the ocelot in size, the pupil is round in form. On the top of the skull there runs a tolerably high bony crest, which reaches its greatest elevation at the very back of the head. This bone ridge is necessary for the attachment of the powerful muscles which operate the jaws and enable the cats to drag away their often very heavy prey.