440 CAT TRIBE 



Apart from the thicker and longer coat and the more bushy, and 

 thus apparently shorter and blunter, tail of the northern animal, the 

 two species are best distinguished, according to Mr. R. I. Pocock 

 {Proc. Zool. Soc. 1907, p. 157), as follows: — 



In the European wild cat the four paired stripes on the head and 

 neck are well defined, and diverge on the back of the head from the 

 middle line to run backwards almost to the shoulders as four wavy, 

 widely separated stripes, of which the middle pair is generally better 

 defined than the lateral pair, one of which occupies each side of the 

 upper surface of the neck. In the African species, on the other hand, 

 the stripes on the head and neck are usually ill denned, and if present 

 on the neck narrow and close together. The European species 

 generally has a distinct wavy black dorsal stripe, reaching from behind 

 the shoulders to the root of the tail, and occasionally flanked by an 

 indistinct and interrupted lateral stripe. In contrast to this is the 

 darkness in the African wild cat of the whole spinal tract, upon which 

 may be traces of three narrow stripes, but the middle one in such 

 cases is always less strong than in the northern species. 



Minor and less constant differences are noticeable in the colour 

 of the ears, which is generally similar to that of the back in the 

 European wild cat, although there may be a wash of yellow, either at 

 the tips or all over. In the African wild cat, on the other hand, the 

 ears are generally yellower or redder — sometimes very markedly so — • 

 than the back ; although this feature does not occur in the Sardinian 

 race. From the evidence of such specimens as have come under my 

 own notice, I should say that the African wild cat is much less 

 distinctly striped than the European species. 



The range of this wild cat includes practically the whole of Africa, 

 exclusive of the forest-zone and the Sahara, and likewise embraces 

 Sardinia, while in former times it also comprised Gibraltar, where 

 fossil remains from the rock-fissures have been assigned to this species. 



Nor is this all, for in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 

 (vol. xxvi. No. i) Dr. R. F. Scharff has described the lower jaws of 

 certain cats from caverns in Ireland and England, which he identified 

 with the Egyptian wild cat. The species had, indeed, been identified as 

 a member of the British Pleistocene fauna, and among the specimens 

 referred to by Dr. Scharff are jaws from the caves of Happaway, the 

 Vale of Eden, and Newhall, in Ireland. The lower carnassial tooth 

 in these fossil cat-jaws is not only larger than the corresponding tooth 

 of either domesticated or wild European cats, but also presents certain 

 distinctive features of its own ; but whether such differences are 



