560 P. W. WHITING 
III. THE ORIGIN OF COLOR VARIETIES OF THE CAT 
It is generally assumed that the domestic cat is polyphyletic 
in origin. Darwin considered this to be the case. Keller (02) 
discusses the matter and agrees with Darwin on this point. 
Elhot (83) believes that the cat is descended from a number of 
wild species and supposes that it has crossed at various times 
with small wild cats in different countries. He attempts to 
trace the well-known color variations as well as variations in 
form to such hybridizing. 
Rope (81) and Pocock (07) both recognize the characters 
blotched and striped and believe that all cats, whatever their 
color, fall in one or the other of these two classes. Pocock 
States: 
It is needless to say more in support of the contention that if a de- 
cided difference in the ‘pattern’ of Domestic Cats exists, it must be 
regarded as furnishing a surer basis for their classification than the 
length of hair, the tint of the coat, or the stunting of the tail. It may 
also be claimed with assurance that the pattern supplies a more im- 
portant clue to the ancestry of the Domestic Cat than the features 
just mentioned. . . . Frequently at all events the so-called 
‘blotched’ pattern can be detected in certain lights even in ‘Whites’ 
and ‘Blacks. 
Pocock also recognized the lined variation, called by. him 
. . \ 
Abyssinian. 
; 
Cats of the so-called ‘Abyssinian’ breed may be descended, for any- 
thing I know to the contrary, from specimens of F. ocreata directly 
exported from Abyssinia, They are certainly not unlike some self- 
coloured examples of that species. On the other hand, it would, I 
imagine, be difficult to separate them from fulvescent ‘Ticked’ Cats, 
which appear to me to be nothing but examples of the torquata-type 
in which the pattern is broken up and evanescent. 
The torquata type is what I have called striped. Pocock dis- 
cusses the synonymy of wildeats and of the domestic cat. The 
whole matter appears to be much confused.* 
* The wildeat of Europe is usually called Felis catus L., but inasmuch as 
Linnaeus’ description agrees with the blotched pattern while the European wild- 
cat is striped, it is considered by Pocock and others that Linnaeus was referring 
to the domestic cat. Felis sylvestris Schreber is therefore chosen as the name 
for the European wildeat. Of the striped form Pocock says: ‘To feral or do- 
