EAST AFRICAN MAMMALS IN NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



179 



The specimci i from Nai- 

 robi was shot by Doctor 

 Mearns in the woods near 

 to^vn. Its markings are 

 almost exactly those of 

 wild cats, except that the 

 black areas are more 

 sharply drawn and the 

 tail has the dark rings 

 connected along the upper 

 side by a continnous 

 stripe. The gromid color 

 is clear gray, without 

 brown tones. This spec- 

 imen may possibly be a 

 mixture of wild stock and 

 domestic stock, but the 

 pattern and color are al- 

 most exactly those of 

 feral domestic cats in va- 

 rious tropical countries, 

 and the skull and teeth 

 show the slight peculiari- 

 ties of the domestic cat 

 as opposed to the wild. 

 In Doctor Lomiberg's ac- 

 count of the mammals 

 collected by the Swedish 

 Zoological Expedition to 

 British East Africa in 

 1911/ he says: "Mrs. Mc- 

 Millan told me that the 

 wild cats interbred with 

 the domesticated cats at 

 Juja Farm." 



Among the feral do- 

 mestic cats in the museum 

 collection is a skin from 

 Cuba which is almost in- 

 distinguishable from cer- 

 tain skins of African wild 

 cats, especially the type 

 skin of Felis ocreata nandx 



' Kungl. Svenska Vet. Akad. Handl., 

 vol. 48, No. 5, p. 82. 1912. 



