188 MAMMALIA OF INDIA. 
This large cat is not uncommon near Calcutta, eal is reputed to live 
much on fish and fresh-water shells, but also I should say on larger 
game. According to some authors (Buchanan-Hamilton, for instance), 
it is fierce and untameable, but Blyth states that he had several big toms, 
quite tame, and in the Surrey Zoological Gardens there was many years 
ago a very fine male which he had frequently handled and had even on 
his lap. He relates, however, in another part, that a newly caught male 
of this species killed a tame young leopardess of twice its own size, 
having broken through the partition of a cage, but he did not eat any 
portion ofher. The Prince of Wales took home a very fine specimen 
of this cat among his collection of living animals. 
Mr. Rainey writes of the ferocity of this cat in the following terms: “I 
can testify to the existence of the above qualities in this animal (eis 
viverrina, Bennett), which is rather abundant in these parts, generally 
taking up its quarters in low, swampy jungle, where it often carries 
off calves, for which the leopard (/ /eopardus, Linn.), undeservedly gets 
credit. Lately, a couple of months ago, a pair of them at night broke 
into a matted house, and went off with a brace of ewes, which had half- 
a-dozen lambs between them, born only a short time before their mothers 
met with their bloody end. I have caught this species in traps, and 
when let loose in an indigo vat with a miscellaneous pack of dogs, they 
have invariably fought hard, and at times proved too much for their 
canine adversaries, so that I have had to go to their rescue, and put an end 
to the fight, by a spear-thrust, ora heavy whack on the back of the head 
with a stout club. Some years ago one got into my fowl-house at night, 
and just as I opened the door to enter inside, it made a fierce jump at 
me from a perch on the opposite side. I had just time to put the 
barrel of my gun forward, on the muzzle of which it fell, and had its 
chest blown to atoms, as I pulled the trigger instantly it alighted 
there.” 
No. 207. FELIS MARMORATA. 
The Marbled Tiger-Cat ( Jerdon’s No. 109). 
Hapirat.—The Sikim Himalayas, Assam, Burmah, and the Malayan 
countries. 
DESCRIPTION.——“ Size of a domestic cat, but with stouter limbs and a 
much longer and thicker tail, of uniform thickness throughout and 
reaching back to the occiput when reflected ; the upper canines are not 
remarkably elongated as in / macroceloides (macrocelis) ; ears rather 
small and obtusely angulated, with a conspicuous white spot on their 
hinder surface” (4274). “Ground colour dingy-fulvous, occasionally 
yellowish grey; the body with numerous elongate wavy black spots, 
somewhat clouded or marbled; the head and nape with some narrow 
blackish lines, coalescing into a dorsal interrupted band ; the thighs and 
