i894. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 323 



to the benefit not only of the professed ornithologist but also of the 

 lover of birds who is not an ornithologist. 



Wild Cats at the Zoo. 

 Still a propos ! A writer in the Spectator accepts the two reputed 

 wild cats in the Zoological Gardens as genuine specimens of the real 

 Felis catus. He may be perfectly correct, and, if so, the Zoological 

 Society is greatly to be congratulated. For the true wild cat will 

 be soon — and, in the opinion of some, is already — as defunct as 

 the dodo. No doubt there are plenty of large and fierce tabby cats 

 to be found in Sutherlandshire, and in other places in the extreme 

 wilds of Scotland ; but there is also no reason to hesitate before 

 referring a good many of these to a mixture of the original wild cat 

 with various pussies whom the delights of sport have permanently 

 allured from the domestic fire-side. Anyone who lives in a neigh- 

 bourhood where there is game, knows how mysteriously grimalkin 

 disappears, to be possibly recognised later nailed to some tree 

 trunk or barn door. We believe that a true character of the wild cat 

 is the entire absence of white hairs about the body. Many cats, most 

 flagrantly domestic, have the black feet and short tail tipped with 

 black of the wild cat ; as a matter of fact, there seems to be little 

 doubt but that the domestic cat is of mixed breed like the domestic 

 dog. There is, doubtless, a considerable strain of Felis catus to be 

 traced therein, but also some mixture of Egyptian or Oriental 

 breeds. The gamekeeper, who is so praised by the writers of that 

 rapidly-increasing class of book which has been termed " scieutifico- 

 literary," is looked upon with abhorrence by the naturalist. Under 

 the heading of " Vermin," it is probable that the last genuine wild 

 cat, if not already extinct, will soon pass away. The author of that 

 delightful book, "The Naturalist in Siluria " (Sonnenschein, 1889), 

 thought he had records of wild cats in Ross ; but in the description 

 of the supposed Felis catus there is too much of what De Quincey has 

 called " demoniac inaccuracy " to admit of an unprejudiced judgment. 

 When one has the misfortune to come across the carcass of a "wild" 

 cat gracing a barn door, it would be worth while to secure the skull. 

 Dead cats do tell tales, for Dr. Hamilton assures us that the skull of the 

 true Felis catus is a perfect image in little of that of the tiger, while the 

 domestic cat reveals its Egyptian strain by a much narrower cranium. 



The White Rhinoceros. 



Some thirteen years ago that mighty hunter, Mr. Selous, 

 contributed to the Proceedings of the Zoological Society an excellent 

 paper upon the African Rhinoceroses. Formerly, and chiefly 

 through the energies of the late Dr. Gray of the British Museum, 

 a goodly number of species were believed to exist in that con- 

 tinent. Mr. Selous showed that there were really only two — the 



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