THE JUNGLE CAT. 1 85 



its food consisting not alone of such water-fowl as can be 

 snatched by it when they are resting on the margin of the 

 water, but also of fish j and its spoor may be constantly ob- 

 served imprinted on the soft mud surrounding such pools in 

 the periodical watercourses which are constantly becoming 

 desiccated, and in which many of the finny tribe may probably 

 be imprisoned without the possibility of escape." Evidence of 

 the crab- or fish-eating propensities of this species in Burma is 

 afforded by a statement of General MacMaster, to the effect 

 that when shooting he killed a Jungle Cat walking in deep 

 black mud, as though in pursuit of fish or crabs. 



In India, where it is known to the natives by the name of 

 Jangli-billi (Jungle Cat), this species is very common. Jerdon 

 writes that it is the common wild Cat "from the Himalayas to 

 Cape Comorin, and from the level of the sea to 7,000 or 8,000 

 feet of elevation. It frequents alike jungles and the open 

 country, and is very partial to long grass and reeds, sugar-cane- 

 fields, corn-fields, &c. It does much damage to game of all 

 kinds — Hares, Partridges, &c, — and quite recently I shot a 

 Peafowl at the edge of a sugar-cane-field, when one of those 

 Cats sprang out, seized the Peafowl, and after a short struggle 

 (for the bird was not dead) carried it off before my astonished 

 eyes, and, in spite of my running up, made good his escape 

 with his booty. It must have been stalking these very birds, 

 so immediately did its spring follow my shot. It is occa- 

 sionally very destructive to poultry. 



* " It is said to breed twice a year, and to have three or four 

 young at a birth. I have very often had the young brought to 

 me, but always failed in rearing them, and they always evinced 

 a most savage and untameable disposition. I have seen num- 

 bers of Cats about villages in various parts of the country, 

 that must have been hybrids between this Cat and tame 

 ones," 



