THE ANCESTOR OF THE HOUSE CAT 



Although the common house-cat of Europe and America is very much of a mongrel, its 

 ])e(ligree can always be traced Ijack to a wild African cat, a sjjecimen of which is shown above. 

 This f)ne, which is only half-grown, was kc])t as a pet by natives of the northeastern Uele 

 district, Belgian Congo, and was i)hot()graphcd ])y Hcrl;ert (). Lang, of the Congo Expedition, 

 American Museum of Natural Histor\' (New York City). It is supposed that this species 

 was first domesticated by the Egyptians and then secured by the Phoenicians, who are 

 thought to have taken it with tlicni on their travels and thus dispersed it verv widely. 

 (Fig. 8.) 



were carried northward. As soon as 

 the domestic breed became estabHshed 

 in Europe it begjan to cross and still 

 does cross freely with the European 

 wildcat {Felis catus). It is probable 

 that the cat was brought by the Romans 

 to Britain some time before the fifth 

 century, although the first mention of 

 its existence occurs in the laws of the 

 Welsh ])rince Howel Dhu, which were 

 enacted about the middle of the tenth 

 century. It seems possible that the 

 European wildcat and Egyptian cat 

 were of much closer relalionshii) than 



has been supposed, since fossil feline 

 remains found in Britain bear just as 

 much resemblance to the Egyptian cat 

 as they do to the native wildcat of the 

 present day. 



From the crossing of the imjiorted 

 Roman cats and the British wild cat 

 evidently resulted the modem "tabby." 

 But the Angora comes from another 

 source. Just what this source was is 

 not positively known, but it seems prob- 

 able that a cat of Central Asia 

 {F. manul), ])opularly knoAAii as Pallas' 

 cat, 2 is the ancestor of the Angora and 



' I'eter Simon Pallas, 1741-1811, was a German by birth and i)arentape, but did practically 

 all his notable work in Russia and is hence often classed as a Russian naturalist. He was the son 

 of a surgeon in the Prussian Army and himself studied medicine, but early developed a bent for 

 natural history and at 23 years of age was made a foreign member of the Royal Society. By 

 fjorsonal invitation from the empress, Catharine II, he occujMed the chair of Natural History at 

 the Imperial Acailemy of Science in St. Petersburg. He spent a year in Englan<l studying geologic 

 conditions there, and was then ajjpointed naturalist to a Russian .scientific j)arty which made a 

 trij) through Russia and Siberia. During the six-year trip he went by Kasan to the Casjnan Sea, 

 spent some time among the Kalnuuks, crossed the Urals to Tobolsk, visited tlie Altai Moimtains, 

 traced the Irtesh to Kolyvan, went to Tomsk and Yenisei, crossed Lake Paikal, and explored the 

 frontiers of China. His records of this trip form one of tlie most interesting chapters in natural 

 history. He was given a magnificent estate in Crimea by the empress on his return, where he 

 lived until the death of his second wife, then removing to Berlin, where he sjjcnt the last year 

 of his life. 



398 



