NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



so that it is invisible at a few paces distant when 

 crouching low, as it often does, evidently well aware 

 that so long as it remains immovable it will, in all 

 likelihood, be passed hy unobserved. 



THE AFRICAN WILD CAT 



{Felis ocreata caffra) 



Also known as the Kafir Cat, Bull Head, Wild Cat, 

 Graauw-kat, Imbodhla, Ingada, and Impaka 



The African Wild Cat inhabits the whole of Africa 

 from the Cape to the Mediterranean, and extends 

 to South-western Asia, viz. Syria and Arabia. It 

 also still exists in Sardinia. 



In South Africa this cat is common in the bush- 

 veld and forests, and in fact wherever there is any 

 suitable cover and an abundance of prey. 



Although in South Africa the Wild Cat has been 

 found to differ slightly from its kind beyond the 

 Zambesi, the difference is by no means sufficient 

 to justify us in making a distinct species of it, so 

 we merely regard it as a distinct local race, and 

 distinguish it from the others by making what is 

 termed a sub-species of it, and naming it Felis 

 ocreata caffra. 



In South Africa the Wild Cat, when living in 

 the neighbourhood of human habitations, rarely 

 shows itself during the daytime, hiding away in 

 the midst of dense brushwood, clefts amongst the 



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