160 



THE WILD CAT. 



The tails of the two animals are easily distinguished from each other. The tail of the 

 domestic Cat 'is long, slender, and tapering, while the tail of the Wild Cat is much shorter 

 and more bushy. Now it is proved that, even if several domestic Cats have escaped into the 

 woods and there led a sylvan life, their long tapering tails have been transmitted to their 

 posterity through many successive generations, in spite of their wild and marauding habits. 



The color, of the Wild Cat is more uniform than that of the domestic animal, and is briefly 

 as follows. 



The ground tint of the fur is a yellowish, or sandy gray, diversified with dark streaks 

 drawn over the body and limbs in a very tigrine manner. These stripes run, as do those of 

 the tiger, nearly at right angles with the line of the body and limbs. A very dark chain of 

 streaks and spots runs along the spine, and the tail is thick, short, and bushy, with a black 

 tip, and many rings of a very dark hue. The stripes along the ribs and on the legs are not so 



WILD CAT. Fdie catu$. 



dark nor so clearly denned as those of the spine. The tail is barely half the length of the 

 head and body. The fur is tolerably long and thick, and when the animal is found in colder 

 regions, such as some parts of Germany and Russia, the fur is peculiarly long and thick. 



In the wilder and less cultivated parts of Scotland, the Wild Cat is still found, and is as 

 dangerous an enemy to the game of Scotland as is the Oceletjto that of tropical America. 



The amount of havoc which is occasioned by these creatures is surprising. Mr. Thompson 

 mentions that a gamekeeper had frequently noticed certain grouse feathers and other debris 

 lying about a "water-break" which lay in his beat, and had more than once come upon some 

 of the birds lying without their heads, but otherwise in such excellent condition that they 

 were taken home and served at table. Suspecting the Wild Cat to be the culprit, he set a 

 trap, and captured two of these animals, an old and a young one. 



Here, again, is exhibited the strange predilection which the Cat tribe seem to feel for the 

 heads of the creatures on which they feed. No less than five grouse were discovered at the 

 same time lying headless on the ground, and it is probable that their destroyers would have 

 contented themselves with the heads only ; and, like the blood-sucking Tiger, would have 

 killed victim after victim for the sole purpose of feasting upon their heads. The keeper 

 expected to secure one or two more of these feline marauders, for the young Wild Cats remain 



