Cats
Its
colour is black or yellow, and its hair very bright and glittering. The Chinese put silver
collars about the necks of these animals, and render them extremely familiar. As they are not
common, they give a high price, both on account of their beauty, and because they destroy
rats."
Buffon's source was Prevot, whose source was Green, whose source was de Halde, whose
source was Martini's 1655 work. Buffon noticed a process we now call neoteny -
domesticated animals retain juvenile features into adulthood. Thus wolves ahd pricked ears
and domestic dogs often had softer, hanging ears. Buffon believed this could apply to cats as
well and that the mild climate and ancient civilisation of China was conducive to domestic
cats developing a similar trait to domestic dogs. In his work, Buffon also mentioned the
sumxu as a pretty domestic animal of China, not unlike a cat. In his Vol VIII (published
annaabi.ee 
