20 LLOYD’S nATORAL HISTORY, 
India; and his suggestion is supported by the well-known in 
tolerance displayed by this animal to the fierce rays of an 
Indian sun. It is therefore quite probable that this Cat may 
be an immigrant from the west or north; and if Siberia, where 
it now exists, should prove to have been its original home, 
what becomes of the theory as to the adaptive harmony ex- 
isting between its dark and light stripes, and the dark streaks 
of vertical light and shade in an Indian jungle ? 
Leaving the subject of their coloration in this somewhat 
unsatisfactory state, we pass on to the consideration of the 
geographical distribution of the Cats. Although the Tiger 
now inhabits Siberia and Amurland, while its fossilised re- 
mains have been found on an island still farther north and 
well within the Arctic Circle, and the Ounce is an inhabitant 
of the cold plateau of Tibet, yet at the present day the Cats, 
as a whole, attain their greatest numerical development in the 
warmer regions of the globe. Indeed, while they are repre- 
sented in almost ali the hottest parts of the world, they have 
no representatives in the extreme northern countries inhabited 
by the Arctic Fox and the Polar Bear. With the exception of 
the Tiger, the larger members of the Family are, in fact, now 
for the most part denizens of tropical and sub-tropical regions, 
although the range of the Puma extends southwards to the 
cold wastes of Patagonia, and northwards to British Columbia 
and Maine. It is true, indeed, that the Lion, as represented 
by the so-called Felis spelea, ranged during the Pleistocene 
period in Western Europe as far north as England, yet we 
know too little of the climate of that period to draw any 
inferences from this former more extended distribution. 
With the exception of Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, 
perhaps Celebes, Madagascar, the West India Islands (save 
Trinidad, which may be reckoned as part of South America), 
and the circumpolar regions, the Cats have a practically 
