FELIS CHAUS. Ill 



though never in jungle. At Hissar it i.s almost always found among 

 the low sand-hills, occasionally in bare fields, usually in the same 

 ground as the desert fox {Vu^jes leucopus). Here it appears to feed 

 chiefly on the jerboa-rat (GerhlUus indicus), so abundant in the sandy 

 tract there. 



I have followed Blyth, in his recent Synopsis, ,in giving this species 

 as the F. torqiiata of F. Cuvier. In his Catalogue, he assigns Colonel 

 Sykes's F. torqviata also to this species, but in a I'ecent letter to me he 

 writes, that he is inclined to consider Sykes's cat as either a domestic 

 cat run wild, or a hybrid. Colonel Sykes states of his species, that it 

 *' frequents the grass roofs of houses, thick hedges, and obscure places in 

 cantonments, shunning the face of man and the light ; but it is con- 

 stantly on the alert at night. It is a pest from the damage it does in 

 poultry-yards in the Dekhan." These habits are so perfectly opposed 

 to those of our wild cat, which is constantly abroad all the day in open 

 ground, and whose habitat is so different, that I can only conclude with 

 Blyth, that it is merely a domestic cat run wild, many of which are 

 found in all cantonments. It may indeed be a hybrid between the 

 spotted and the domestic cat. The description by Gray of F. incon- 

 siJicuus differs a good deal, and it is said to have a long tail. The 

 figure in Jardine's Naturalist's Libraiy (F. servalina) is not a bad 

 representation of the wild cat. Blyth formerly gave Gray's Chaus 

 serval'iuics as a synonym of this cat, but now refers it to F. hengalensis. 



The next cat is not a typical Lynx, and it has been separated 

 generically as Chaus, Gray. 



115. Felis chaus, 



GuLDENSTADT. — F. CuviER, Mamm. 3, pi. 32. — Blytii, Cat. 186, 

 and Synops. 19 — F. offinis, Gray. — Hardwicke, 111. Ind. Zool. fig. — 

 F. Jcutas, Pearson. — F. {Jynclms) erythrotis, Hodgson. — F. Jacquemontii, 

 Is. Geoferoy, figd. Jacquemont, Vo}'. pi. — Chaus lyhicus, Gray. — 

 Katds, Beng. and H.—Jamjli-billi, Ji.—Banberdl, B. — Birka of Bhagul- 

 pore hill tiibes. — J/ant bek, Can. — Kada heh or Bella bek of Waddars. 

 — Jloia lahn inanjur, Mahr. — Bhaorja, Mahr. of the gh.lts. — Jinlia'piUi, 

 Tel. — Cherru pv.li, Mai. 



The Common Jungle- cat. 



Descr. — Yellowish-grey, more or less dark and unspotted, approaching 

 to rufous on the sides of the neck and abdomen, where it unites with 



