WILD CAT. 89 



whole length of the back, from which diverge numerous 

 paler transverse bands, gradually becoming lighter in tint as 

 they descend the flanks, until they are finally lost in the 

 nearly white area of the under-parts. Usually the tail is 

 ringed with nine black bands upon a grey ground ; the first 

 five of these bands being the narrower, and not meeting 

 below, while the terminal black area is the largest of all, 

 being often as much as two inches in length ; it is at the same 

 time the deepest in tint. Barred externally with horizontal 

 bands of black, the limbs have their inner surface yellowish- 

 grey, like the upper surfaces of the feet, while the soles of the 

 latter are black. The claws are yellowish-grey. 



Writing in the volume on British Mammals in the original 

 issue of the "Naturalist's Library" of the coloration of the 

 hairs themselves, Macgillivray states that in the Wild Cat "the 

 softer hairs or fur are, in general, of a pale purplish tint, and 

 pale reddish at the extremity ; the longer hairs white at the 

 base, then black, afterwards yellowish-red, with the tip black. 

 Others, however, are first white, then black, yellowish-black, 

 and finally reddish. There are a few very long white hairs on 

 the loins inferiorly and laterally. On the white parts the hairs 

 are of that colour from the base ; on the bright red inter-crural 

 part they are for a short space at the base bluish. The ter- 

 minal rings of the tail have the hairs entirely black, but the 

 black hairs of the feet have their base paler." 



In addition to her considerably smaller dimensions, the 

 female Wild Cat may be distinguished from the male by her 

 generally paler coloration. 



Distribution. — Ranging over a considerable portion of Con- 

 tinental Europe, namely, France, Germany, Poland, Switzer- 

 land, Hungary, Southern Russia, Spain, Dalmatia, Greece, 

 and part of Turkey, and thence extending eastwards into the 

 forest regions of Northern Asia, the Wild Cat was formerly 



