444 CAT TRIBE 



THE CARACAL 



{Felts caracal) 



Rooi-kat, CAPE DUTCH 



(PLATE xv, fig. 3) 



The caracal, whose name is of Turkish origin, and signifies " black- 

 eared," has a wider range in Africa than the jungle-cat, extending 

 from Cape Colony to Nubia, Egypt, and Algeria, although its dis- 

 tribution in Asia is more restricted and does not include any of the 

 countries lying east of the Bay of Bengal. 



As stated in the Game Animals of India, etc., from which the 

 following account is mainly taken, the caracal forms a link between 

 the jungle-cat and the true lynxes (which are unknown in Africa) ; 

 its ears resembling those of the latter in being furnished with large 

 tufts of long black hairs at their tips, although its tail is much longer, 

 and the throat and chest lack the distinctive lynx-ruff. Still the 

 caracal is more of a lynx than a cat, its skull and teeth being decidedly 

 lynx-like. In size it is intermediate between the jungle-cat and an 

 ordinary lynx ; but it is of remarkably slight and slender build, the 

 limbs being proportionately long, and the tail, which reaches down to 

 the hocks, equal to about one-third the length of the head and body. 

 The height at the shoulder varies from 16 to 18 inches, the length of 

 the head and body from 26 to 30 inches, and that of the tail between 

 9 and 10 inches. 



A caracal is an unmistakable animal, its lynx-like ears, uniformly 

 red colour, and comparatively long tail rendering it unlike any other. 

 With the exception of the outer surface of the ears, a pair of spots on 

 the upper lip, and sometimes others on the face, as well as, in some 

 instances, the tip of the tail, which are black, and two pairs of pale 

 spots in the neighbourhood of the eyes, the whole of the upper-parts 

 and limbs is uniformly reddish, varying from rufous fawn to brownish 

 rufous. On the under -parts the colour varies from pale rufous to 

 white, the inside of the ears being likewise white. Although it is 

 rarely that traces of spotting can be detected on the back and sides 

 of adult individuals, pale rufous spots are generally more or less in 

 evidence on the light under surface of the body, and in newly born 

 kittens the whole coat is distinctly spotted. Individuals inhabiting 



