THE INDIAN DESERT-CAT 429 



may be slightly banded, while the front of the head is spotted, and the cheeks are 

 marked by the usual pair of transverse streaks. The peculiar silvery "wash" on 

 the fur is due to the circumstance that the ends of the longer hairs on the back are 

 white, with short black tips. 



In the steppes of Asia this cat takes the place of the wild cat of Europe. In 

 the time of Pallas, its describer, its range extended from the southern flanks of the 

 Urals through the Kirghiz, Turki, and Mongolian steppes to South Siberia, and 

 from the foot of the Altai to Lake Baikal. Now, however, Pallas' s cat appears to 

 be unknown in the Orenburg steppes. Its food is said to consist largely of the 

 small Rodents, commonly known as picas, or tailless hares {Lagomys). It is this cat 

 which was regarded by Pallas as being the ancestral stock from which the domesti- 

 cated Angora or Persian breed took origin, although the evidence in favor of this view 

 is insufficient. 



THE INDIAN DESERT-CAT {Felts ornata) 



As implied by its name, the Indian desert-cat, like the species last mentioned, 

 is an inhabitant of open regions, and in this respect differs widely from its spotted 

 compatriot, the leopard-cat. The desert-cat is another* of the numerous species 

 agreeing approximately in size with average domestic cats, but it differs from the 

 three preceding species in that the ornamentation of the fur takes the form of 

 spots, which may have a tendency to arrange themselves in longitudinal lines along 

 the body. Moreover, the tail, instead of being short and bushy, as in the two pre- 

 ceding species, is comparatively thin, tapering, and about equal in length to the 

 head and body. The general ground color of the desert-cat is pale sandy, or 

 "isabelline" ; the spots on the body are small and rounded, while those on the neck 

 and head are still smaller, elongated, and tend to form lines. The outer surfaces of 

 the limbs have dark bars, and the upper surface of the base of the tail is similarly 

 barred, while near the end the tail is ringed, and its tip is black. The soles of the 

 feet are also black below. This little cat is confined to the desert and sandy regions 

 of Western India, being especially common in the deserts to the east of the Indus, 

 in Sind, Western Rajputana, and Hurriana, where, according to Mr. Blanford, it 

 subsists largely on the gerbils which abound in such regions. The spotted sandy 

 fur of this cat probably harmonizes well in color with the desert sands dotted here 

 and there with darker pebbles. 



In the deserts of Eastern Turkestan, in the neighborhood of Yarkand and 

 Kashgar, this cat is replaced by the nearly-allied Shaw's cat (F. shawiana}, distin- 

 guished by its rather larger size and shorter tail. 



Nearly related to the desert-cat is the far less common waved cat (F. torquata) 

 from Northern India, Kashmir, Nipal, etc. This species is distinguished by its 

 more uniform coloration of ashy gray, becoming more .or less rufous in some speci- 

 mens, and passing into buff on the lower parts. The head and back are marked by 

 "indistinct longitudinal dark bands, and there are also numerous rows of incomplete 

 vertical stripes, passing into spots on the sides of the body. The under parts are 

 plain colored, but the tail and feet are marked as in the desert-cat, the under surf ace 

 of the latter being, however, brown instead of black. 



