WILD CAT.—Felis Catus 
life in the bush. Even tame and petted Cats have been known to take to poaching, and 
to bring to their owner a daily pheasant or partridge. There are few more dangerous foes 
to game than the domestic Cat, and the Wild Cat gets the credit of its misdeeds. 
Whether the Wild Cat be the original progenitor of our domestic Cat is still a mooted 
point, and likely to remain so, for there is no small difficulty in bringing proofs to bear 
on such a subject. It is certain that if such be the case, the change from savage to 
domestic life must be of very long standing, for it is proved that certain distinctions 
between the Wild and domestic Cat are found in full force, even though the domestic Cat 
may have taken to a wild life for many a year. There are several points of distinction 
between the Wild and the domestic Cat; one of the most decided differences being found 
in the shape and comparative length of their tails. 
As may be seen from the accompanying figure, the tails 
of the two animals are easily distinguished from each other. 
The upper figure represents the tail of the domestic Cat, 
which is long, slender, and tapering, while the lower repre- 
sents the tail of the Wild Cat, which is much shorter and more 
bushy. Now it is proved that, even if several domestic Cats 
have escaped into the woods and there led a sylvan life, their 
long tapering tails have been transmitted to their posterity CATS’ TAILS. 
through many successive generations, in spite of their wild 
and marauding habits. 
The colour of the Wild Cat is more uniform than that of the domestic animal, and is 
briefly as follows. 
The ground tint of the fur is a yellowish, or sandy grey, diversified with dark streaks 
drawn over the body and limbs in a very tigrine manner. These stripes run, as do those 
of the tiger, nearly at right angles with the line of the body and limbs, so that the 
creature has been termed, with some justice, the British Tiger. A very dark chain of 
streaks and spots runs along the spine, and the tail is thick, short, and bushy, with a 
black tip, and many rings of a very dark hue. The stripes along the ribs and on the legs 
Al. ce) 
