192 MAMMALIA OF INDIA. 
and the Rev. J. Mason speaks of a tiger cat in Tenasserim, ‘ which 
the Karens call the ive Ziger from the colour of its skin, which is of 
an uniform red.” 
No. 211. FELIS RUBIGINOSA. 
The Rusty-spotted Cat ( Jerdon’s No. 113). 
Native Name.—Wamali pelli, Tamil.—Jerdon. 
Hasitrat.—Southern India and Ceylon. Jerdon says he never saw 
or heard of it in Central India, or on the Malabar Coast, but I got it at 
Seonee in the Central Provinces. 
DESCRIPTION.—Size of a small domestic cat, with a tail half the length 
of the body ; colour greyish with a rufous tinge, or greenish grey tinged 
with rufous; the under parts white, with large rufous spots ; ears small; 
four well defined dark brown or black lines along the forehead and nape, 
and three along the back, the latter being interrupted into longish spots ; 
a series of rusty coloured spots on the sides ; fur very short ; tail uniform 
in colour, more rufous than the body, sometimes indistinctly spotted ; 
insides of limbs with large brown spots; feet reddish grey above with 
black soles, whiskers long and white. 
Size.—Head and body, 16 to 18 inches; tail, 93. 
Jerdon says: ‘‘ This very pretty little cat frequents grass in the dry 
beds of tanks, brushwood, and occasionally drains in the open country 
and near villages, and it is said not to be a denizen of the jungles. I 
had a kitten brought to me when very young, in 1846, and it became 
quite tame, and was the delight and admiration of all who saw it. Its 
activity was quite marvellous, and it was very playful and elegant in its 
motions. When it was about eight months old I introduced it into a 
room where there was a small fawn of the gazelle, and the little creature 
flew at it the moment it saw it, seized it by the nape, and was with 
difficulty taken off. I lost it shortly after this. It would occasionally find 
its way to the rafters of bungalows and hunt for squirrels.” 
Jerdon doubted the existence of this cat in Central India, but, in 1859 
or 1860, I had two kittens brought to me by a Gond in the Seonee 
district, and I kept them for many months. They became perfectly 
tame, so much so that, although for nine months of the year I was out 
in camp, they never left the tents, although allowed to roam about 
unconfined, The grace and agility of their motions was most striking. 
I have seen one of them balance itself on the back of a chair, and when 
one of the pair died it was ludicrous to see the attempts of a little gray 
village cat, which I got to be a companion to the survivor, to emulate 
the gymnastics of its wild comrade. At night the little cats were put 
into a basket, and went on with the spare tents to my next halting 
place; and on my arrival next morning I would find them frisking 
about the tent roof between the two canvasses, or scrambling up the trees 
