The Desert-Cat 



THE DESERT-CAT 



(Felis ornata) 



A short notice must suffice for this cat, since it is 

 one of those species of which the claims to admission 

 in a work devoted to "game" are doubtful, its size 

 being approximately the same as that of a domesticated 

 cat. It resembles the jungle-cat in the presence of a 

 few long stiff hairs on the tips of the ears, forming 

 incipient pencils, but these hairs are brown instead of 

 black ; and it is further distinguished from that species 

 by the greater length of the tail, which reaches to the 

 hocks, by the ears being coloured like the rest of the 

 head, and by the fur being marked by numerous 

 roundish black spots on a pale yellow ground. The 

 under surfaces of the paws are black ; and the terminal 

 half of the tail is ringed with black ; the cheeks are 

 marked by a pair of horizontal brown stripes ; and there 

 are two black transverse bands on the inner surface of 

 the fore-arm, the outer surface of the limbs also showing 

 dark cross-bars. 



The desert -cat inhabits open, sandy districts in 

 North- Western India, extending from Banda, through 

 the North-West Provinces to Agra, Sambhar, and Sind, 

 where it is comparatively common. 



The species was long regarded as nearly allied to the 

 jungle-cat, but Mr. R. I. Pocock {Proc. Zool. Soc. Lon- 

 don^ 1907, p. 165) considers that its affinities are really 

 with the African wild cat {Felis ocreatd)^ which is itself 

 near akin to the European wild cat {F. catus). In Bok- 

 hara the group is represented by the steppe-cat {F . 

 caudatd)^ which was shown by Prof. Martorelli in 1895 

 to be an ally of F. ocreata. 



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