THE RUSTY-SPOTTED CAT 419 



Owing to the general lack of attention paid to them by the majority of sports- 

 men and travelers, we have far less information as to the habits and mode of life of 

 the smaller cats of Africa and South America than we possess with regard to those 

 of India, where a host of careful observers have made us tolerably well acquainted 

 with most of the Mammals in their wild state. 



In Kast Africa, as we are informed by Mr. H. C. V. Hunter, the serval inhabits 

 the grassy plains at the foot of Mount Kilima-njaro, where it is not uncommon. It 

 also ranges to an elevation of five thousand feet or more on the flanks of the moun- 

 tain. At that elevation a black specimen was obtained by Mr. Hunter, and, since 

 the natives have a separate name for this black variety, it must be comparatively 

 common. In a black skin from South Africa in the British Museum the spots are 

 distinctly visible when the skin is viewed in certain lights. 



Omitting mention of certain little-known species of cats from Western Africa, 

 such as the golden-haired ca.t(Fetis rutilo) of Sierra Leone and the Gambia, the gray 

 African cat (F. neglecto] from the Gambia, and the servaline cat (F. servalina) 

 from Sierra Leone, we proceed to the consideration of two small Asiatic species. 



THE RUSTY-SPOTTED CAT (Felis rubiginosa) 



It is somewhat remarkable that as India is inhabited by the two largest living 

 representatives of the Cat family, so it also includes the smallest member of the 

 group. The species which has the honor of occupying the latter position is the 

 pretty little animal known as the rusty-spotted cat, which is of somewhat smaller 

 dimensions than an average domestic cat. Its general ground color is ruddy gray, 

 passing into white below, while the body and limbs, but not the tail, are spotted. 

 In some examples, however, the red tinge is greatly developed at the expense of the 

 gray. The individual hairs vary in color in different portions of their length. The 

 dark spots on the back and sides are longer than broad, with a more or less marked 

 tendency to arrange themselves in longitudinal lines, and the species derives both its 

 popular and its scientific name from their general rusty-red hue. In the reddish 

 variety, which is characteristic of Ceylon, the spots are, however, brownish black. 

 As in so many of the smaller Indian cats, the forehead is marked by longitudinal 

 dark stripes, four in number, and there is also a stripe on each side of the face be- 

 hind the eye. The species is quite peculiar among the spotted cats in having the 

 tail without either spots or rings, its upper surface being of the same tint as the 

 back, while the under part is paler. In length the rusty-spotted cat varies from six- 

 teen to eighteen inches from the tip of the snout to the root of the tail, the length 

 of the tail being constantly nine and one-half inches. 



The skull agrees with that of the fishing-cat in having the sockets of the eyes 

 completely surrounded by bone, but it is peculiar in that there are never more than 

 two premolar teeth in the upper jaw, that is to say, there is only one of these teeth 

 in advance of the flesh-tooth. 



This cat inhabits Ceylon and Southern India, rarely extending as far north- 

 wards as the Central Provinces, and being quite unknown on the Malabar coast. 

 Its fossil remains have been obtained from a cavern in Madras, thus proving that it 



