Game Animals of India, etc. 



and birds, especially the rodents known as picas ; and 

 its thick fur affords an adequate protection against the 

 winter cold of its habitat. 



In the Annuaires du Musee Zoologique of the 

 Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg for the year 

 1904 (pp. 495-506) Dr. Const. Satunin, of Tiflis, 

 published a paper on the manul, which he made the 

 type of a new genus, Trichalurus^ on account of 

 certain peculiarities in the skull, being apparently 

 unaware that a separate genus name had been proposed 

 for it many years previously by^the Russian naturalist 

 Severtzoff. According to Dr. Satunin, the typical 

 F. manul ranges from the Western Siberian steppes 

 and the mountain ranges of Transcaspia (including the 

 Kopet-dagh, Murgab, and Tedshen) as far east as 

 Lake Baikal. East of Lake Baikal in Siberia and all 

 over Mongolia the typical form is replaced by the 

 so-called F. manul mongolica^ represented in Wolf's 

 figure in Elliot's Monograph of the Felida (plate x). 

 As the name mongoltca is preoccupied {^see p. 296), this 

 race may be called F. manul satuni. 



Nearly related is Felis nigripectus of Hodgson, 

 which Dr. Satunin regards as a distinct species, the 

 skull, and especially the nasal bones, presenting peculiar 

 characters. This cat, which ranges all over Tibet, 

 has been recorded from Ladak. 



The suggestion has been made that the manul is the 

 ancestor of the Persian breed of domesticated cats ; but 

 it differs from all the latter in that the pupil contracts 

 to a nearly circular disk, instead of to a slit ; while the 

 ears are smaller and set lower on the sides of the head, 

 and the markings are of a different type. 



334 



