406 



THE CAT. 



[chap. XII, 



(15.) The Serval (Fe/is SeiraJ).* 



§ 7. This large and well-known African cat has long legs and a 

 short tail. It is of a more or less tawny colour, with black spots, 

 and black rings on the tail. The undcrparts are whitish. Towards 

 the middle of the back the spots tend to run together into two longi- 

 tudinal bands. There is no dark streak upon the cheek, but there 

 are two strongly marked transverse black bars across the inside of 

 the uj)per part of each fore-leg. 



The length of the head and body may be as much as forty inches, 

 that of the tail may be sixteen inches. 



The pupil contracts into an oblong opening. 



There is not only a first upper premolar, but the second upper 

 premolar is largely developed. 



This animal inhabits Africa from Algiers to the Cape. 



(16.) The Golden-haired Cat (Felis ruWa).\ 



This species is founded upon a skin described by Mr. "VVaterhouse 

 in 1842, and which (the type of the species) is preserved in the 

 British Museum, but is unfortunately mutilated. 



Its colour is red-brown, with indistinct small darker spots on the 

 sides ; back, dark brown medianly ; belly white, with large broAvu 

 spots ; tail red-brown, with a dark central line extending along its 

 dorsal surface, while at each side it is pale, with obscure indications 

 of darker bands. 



Length of head and body about twenty-eight inches ; of tail, 

 fourteen inches. 



The skull has the orbits incomplete behind. There is a very 

 small first upper premolar. 



Habitat, Sierra Leone and Gambia. 



There are two cats only known to me by description, as to the 

 distinctness of which I am too much in doubt to venture to enume- 

 rate them as distinct kinds. They are F. cclidogasfer and F. 

 scncyalemis. 



Folk cclidorjasfcr was named by Tcmminck,t who thus describes 

 it:— 



"Fur sliort, smooth, shiny, grey, with a reddish tmt, with 

 chocolate or light brown spots; spots on dorsal line oblong, the 



* This is (losciil)P(l niiil figured in Mr. 

 Elliot's Moiioglajili. 



t WutcihouHc, I'ro. Zool. Soc, 1S12, 

 p. mo ; Gray, Pro. Zool. Soo., 1867, 

 pp. 272 and 395 ; Cat. of Carnivora, 

 p. 23. F. Hirysothrix of Elliot's Mono- 



tcrapli. He idontifios it with lioth tho 

 "/'. nurata and tho F. cclidogasfer of 

 Ti'inniinck, and with the F. ncr/kda of 

 Cray. 

 :;: Esqulsses Zoologiqiics, ii. S7. 



