TIIE JUNGLE CAT, 185 
its food consisting not alone of such water-fowl as can be 
snatched by it when they are resting on the margin of the 
water, but also of fish; and its spoor may be constantly ob- 
served imprinted on the soft mud surrounding such pools in 
the periodical watercourses which are constantly becoming 
desiccated, and in which many of the finny tribe may probably 
be imprisoned without the possibility of escape.” Evidence of 
the crab- or fish-eating propensities of this species in Burma is 
afforded by a statement of General MacMaster, to the effect 
that when shooting he killed a Jungle Cat walking in deep 
black mud, as though in pursuit of fish or crabs. 
In India, where it is known to the natives by the name of 
Jangli-bilti (Jungle Cat), this species is very common. Jerdon 
writes that it is the common wild Cat “from the Himalayas to 
Cape Comorin, and from the level of the sea to 7,000 or 8,000 
feet of elevation. It frequents alike jungles and the open 
country, and is very partial to long grass and reeds, sugar-cane- 
fields, corn-fields, &c. It does much damage to game of all 
kinds—Hares, Partridges, &c.,—and quite recently I shot a 
Peafowl at the edge of a sugar-cane-field, when one of those 
Cats sprang out, seized the Peafowl, and after a short struggle 
(for the bird was not dead) carried it off before my astonished 
eyes, and, in spite of my running up, made good his escape 
with his booty. It must have been stalking these very birds, 
so immediately did its spring follow my shot. It is occa- 
sionally very destructive to poultry. 
i ‘It is said to breed twice a year, and to have three or four 
young ata birth. I have very often had the young brought to 
me, but always failed in rearing them, and they always evinced 
a most savage and untameable disposition. I have seen num- 
bers of Cats about villages in various parts of the country, 
that must have been hybrids between this Cat and tame 
ones.” 
