20 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



as the markings of its skin, and great individual 

 differences in disposition and tractability may be 

 recognised. Many servals are the reverse of 

 amiable, snarling and spitting if their cage is 

 approached too closely, and ready enough with 

 teeth and claws to resent a^orression : it would p"o 

 very hard with the pluckiest of terriers if thrown 

 into a cage with one of these savage brutes. This 

 ferocious disposition is not limited to the adults 

 for it may be evident enough in mere kittens, 

 although by reason of their voyage to Europe all 

 foreign animals of necessity become accustomed 

 to the presence of human beings. Truculent, 

 agile, with muscles as supple as steel, it is quite 

 conceivable that a serval driven to bay would be 

 no despicable antagonist for an unarmed man. 



Nevertheless although it is plain that individual 

 animals can be incarnations of brute ferocity it is 

 not fair to libel the whole serval race as utterly 

 untameable and hopelessly savage, as too many 

 naturalists have done. "Give a dog a bad name" 

 is a proverb equally applicable to cats, even wild 

 ones ; it must be borne in mind, by the way, that 

 the name *' tiger-cat " refers chiefly, if not wholly, 

 to the tiger-like markings which adorn most of the 

 group, and not to the tigerish nature of the 

 animals.^ Repeated observations in Continental 



1 Compare also the adjectival use of the word in the case of the 

 readily-tamed "tigrine" genet of the Cape, and of the Tasmanian 

 "tiger ".wolf or thylacine, which becomes at least half-tame in 

 captivity to my own certain knowledge. 



