Temminck's Monographies dc Mammaiogie, 531 



the description is made having been purchased from a dealer iu 

 London. 



14. F. Chaus of Guldensted, figured by Schreber. The other 

 animals described under this name are referable to the next spe- 

 cies. 



15. F.caligata: the Booted Lynx of Bruce, F. Lyhicus of' 

 Olivier, and Lybian Caracal of Buffon. 



16. JP. Catus, 



It has been generally conceived that this species is to be re- 

 garded as the original stock of the domestic Cat, but M. Tem- 

 minck doubts the correctness of this opinion, which appears to 

 him to be contradicted by the general fact that domesticated ani- 

 mals become larger than the wild stock from which the race has 

 sprung. Our common Cat, which, like the Dog, is spread over 

 the world wherever man inhabits, is on the contrary smaller than 

 the wild one of the Northern parts of Europe. In their tails they 

 also differ considerably ; that of the wild Cat being thick and 

 short, equally large throughout and not reaching when reflected' 

 farther than the scapula ; while in the domestic Cat it is longer 

 a«(f more slender, and diminishes in thickness towards its extre- 

 mity. M. Temminck therefore regards the latter as being pro- 

 bably descended from the succeeding species, which inhabits 

 Egypt ; a fact, which, assuming that country as the centre of civi- 

 lization, he holds to be strong confirmatory evidence of the cor- 

 rectness of his opinion. 



17. F. m<iniculata^ a new species sent from Nubia by M. 

 Ruppel. Size one-third less than that of the F, Catus ; propor- 

 tions nearly the same as in that species, with the exception of 

 the tail, which is longer and more slender : ears without pencils ; 

 sole of the feet, and hinder part of the metacarpus and of the me- 

 tatarsus perfectly black. 



18. F. minuta,^ a name, which, as applied to a species already 

 well known under another denomination, cannot be adopted. It 

 is the F, Javanensis of Dr. Horsfield's Zoological Researches in 

 Java, and this trivial appellation is altered by M. Temminck, on 

 account of the impropriety, as he alleges, of employing names de- 

 rived from the countries in which animals are first discovered. 



2 l2 



