■ 34 



rare, though I may have seen a dozen of the latter, this 

 singular fact is a correlation of sex and colour brought about 

 without either natural or artificial selection, and I am quite 

 unable to advance any theory to account for it. 



Like the dog, the fertility of the cat has been in no way 

 lost by its having crossed with many other wild felines, 

 I have seen one beautiful specimen which was a hybrid 

 between the English domestic cat and Felts Bengalensis. 



I have always thought that the cats which take to 

 poaching and live in the woods are those in which the 

 blood of Felts sylvestris preponderates, I have seen un- 

 doubted hybrids between this and the domestic cat. 



It will be seen that the unimpaired fertility of the 

 domestic cat is not lost even by hybridity. 



There are upwards of 70 other species of cats known, 

 among them the Cheetah only, is semi-domesticated, but I 

 believe not. bred in confinement, and is neither attached to 

 persons nor locality. 



The Ferret has not all the qualities of a domestic 

 animal. 



It is perfectly fertile, has a plasticity of constitution, is 

 somewhat tame but uncertain, is useful for destroying rats 

 and rabbits, but must always be kept closely confined, 

 possessing neither the qualities of attachment to locality 

 nor to persons. 



I have known hybrids produced with the Stoat but they 

 were too savage to be used. 



The most that can be said for this tame Pole cat is that 

 it is the only animal of the Weasel tribe which man has 

 succeeded in domesticating. 



The Otter, also a musteline animal, is trained some- 

 times to catch fish, but I am not aware that it is bred for that 

 purpose in" confinement, and is not domesticated to the 

 extent of the fen-et. 



The Mongooz, a viverrine animal, is domesticated 

 in India, and is used for the same purposes as the ferret, 

 and in addition it is the enemy of snakes and reptiles, but I 



