430 THE CAT. [chap. xh. 



It differs from the latter in that it is thicker in the body, and has 

 shorter and stouter limbs, and a much thicker tail. Its fur is also 

 more woolly and dense, particularly on the ears, mane, and tail. 

 The whole of the body is of a pale isabelline colour, rather paler on 

 the belly and lower parts, but covered all over, including the belly, 

 with roundish, dark, fulvous blotches. There are no traces of the 

 black spots which are so conspicuous in the cheetah, nor of the 

 characteristic black line between the mouth and the eye.* 



The animal described came from Beaufort West, in Cape Colony. 



§ 13. With the last-named animal closes the list of living cats 

 which it is thought may certainly, probably or very possibly, be con- 

 sidered as distinct "species." But while doubtless some new species 

 may yet be discovered, yet it is, on the other hand, very probable 

 that various forms here enumerated as very possibly or probably 

 distinct may turn out to be mere varieties. The domestic cat is 

 said to breed, in India, with F. Chans and F. ruUginosa, and with 

 other species in Ceylon and Africa, and the produce of some of 

 these unions may themselves be fertile, and if so, the parents must 

 be classed as belonging to one and the same species. 



Casting a retrospective glance over the characters of the species 

 described, we see that they differ but in few points. The uniformity 

 of their structure, and even of their colour, is very remarkable. Some 

 reddish or yellowish shade more or less modified by grey or brown, may 

 be said to be their ground tint, marked generally with spots, often with 

 stripes more or less black, with the under parts of the body whitish. 

 Very generally there are two transverse stripes on the cheeks, and 

 bars on the inside of the upper arms, with dark rings round the tail. 

 There arc no wild kinds of a pure white, nor is there any black or black- 

 and-white species, while it is only a few kinds that are of a uniform 

 tint and unspotted. The various kinds differ in size, in details of colour, 

 in the length of the hair of certain parts, in the length of limbs 

 compared with that of the body, and in the length- of tail. They 

 also differ as to the presence or absence of a tuft of hair on the ear- 

 tips, the form of the skull, the enclosure or non-enclosure of the 

 orbits by bone, the presence or absence of a first upper premolar, the 

 relative size of the first and second premolars, the size of the 

 internal cusp of the upper sectorial tooth, the more or less perfect 

 retraction of the claws, and the shape of the contracted pupil. 



Besides these characters, certain details of brain-structure, the 

 condition of the anterior cornu of the os hyoidcs, the proximity of 

 the stomach to the diaphragm, and the relative length of the 

 intestine, are known to be different in different kinds, and no doubt 

 various other such divergences exist which have not as yet been 

 noted. Indeed, these latter anatomical details have been examined 

 in too few forms to enable them to be yet made use of for purposes 

 of classification. 



* This line is, however, indioatctl on one side of the nmzzle of a specimen now 

 living in the Zoological Society's Gardens. 



