18 DOMESTIC CATS. Chap. I. 



imported from foreign lands. On the other hand, in islands 

 and in countries completely separated from each other, we 

 meet with breeds more or less distinct ; and these cases are 

 worth giving, showing that the scarcity of distinct races in 

 the same country is not caused by a deficiency of variability 

 in the animal. The tailless cats of the Isle of Man are said 

 to differ from common cats not only in the want of a tail, but 

 in the greater length of their hind legs, in the size of their 

 heads, and in habits. The Creole cat of Antigua, as I am 

 informed by Mr. Nicholson, is smaller, and has a more elon- 

 gated head, than the British cat. In Ceylon, as Mr. Thwaites 

 writes to me, every one at first notices the different appear- 

 ance of the native cat from the English animal ; it is of small 

 size, with closely lying hairs ; its head is small, with a re- 

 ceding forehead ; but the ears are large and sharp ; altogether 

 it has what is there called a " low-caste " appearance. Eeng- 

 ger 93 says that the domestic cat, which has been bred for 

 300 years in Paraguay, presents a striking difference from the 

 European cat; it is smaller by a fourth, has a more lanky 

 body, its hair is short, shining, scanty, and lies close, espe- 

 cially on the tail : he adds that the change has been less at 

 Ascension, the capital of Paraguay, owing to the continual 

 crossing with newly imported cats ; and this fact well illus- 

 trates the importance of separation. The conditions of life 

 in Paraguay appear not to be highly favourable to the cat, 

 for, though they have run half- wild, they do not become 

 thoroughly feral, like so many other European animals. In 

 another part of South America, according to Eoulin, 94 the 

 introduced cat has lost the habit of uttering its hideous 

 nocturnal howl. The Eev. W. D. Fox purchased a cat in 

 Portsmouth, which he was told came from the coast of 

 Guinea ; its skin was black and wrinkled, fur bluish grey 

 and short, its ears rather bare, legs long, and whole aspect 

 peculiar. This " negro " cat was fertile with common cats. 

 On the opposite coast of Africa, at Mombas, Captain Owen, 



93 ' Saugethiere von Paraguay,' Savans : Acad. Roy. des Sciences.' 

 1830, s. 212. torn. vi. p. 346. Gomara first noticed 



** ' Mem. presented par divers this fact in 1554. 



