4 COMMON BRITISH ANIMALS 



existed before the custom of protecting game such 

 as partridges and pheasants prevailed, but these 

 would be speedily killed by the gamekeepers, and no 

 doubt their skins were stufPed and put into the local 

 museums, where many specimens are to be seen. 

 Those who have a chance of seeing a wild cat 



Fig. 3.— Persian Cat. (Photo, from life by Miss Devitt.) 



in a museum should look well at it and compare its 

 colour, its stripes, the shape of the tail, markings on 

 the tail and the shape of its head with these points 

 in their own pussy at home. 



The late Prof. Mivart, who has devoted a large 

 volume to the study of the cat, believed, as many 

 others do with him, that our domestic cat is not the 

 English wild cat tamed, but that our tame cats were 



