TABBY CATS 67 



needless to look beyond these two wild species for the 

 ancestor of the domestic Cat in question. 



There are, it is true, no records of the taming in 

 past times of the European species, but the African 

 species is known to have been domesticated in Egypt 

 many thousands of years ago. From Egypt it was 

 no doubt introduced eastwards into India and Siam, 

 and gave rise to the striped or nearly self-coloured 

 domestic Cats of the former country and to the 

 peculiar albinistic breed of the latter country. Hence 

 there is no reason to suppose that these Oriental 

 domestic Cats have any infusion of European Wild 

 Cat in their veins. It may be that this accounts 

 for the differences that commonly but not invariably 

 exist between Oriental and European domestic Cats 

 of the Striped Tabby type. From Egypt also the 

 African Cat was no doubt introduced as a tame 

 animal into the countries of southern Europe, where 

 it would come into contact with the European 

 species. However that may be, the evidence that 

 F. sylvestris has contributed to the formation of the 

 Striped domestic Tabby is that the latter is seldom 

 exactly like either of its supposed ancestral forms, 

 resembling the European species in some characters 

 and the African species in others. This, however, is 

 a matter of no very great moment. The important 

 point to remember is that the African and European 

 Wild Cats and the Striped Tabby resemble each 

 other in all essential characters and differ from 

 all other species of Felis known in the world. 



