52 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF REPRODUCTION 



annual breeding seasons. The probability is that there is only one 

 (in March), the young being born in May ; but Millais records that 

 he has seen young wild cats, which could not have been more than 

 forty days old, killed in Scotland in October. Cocks, in a letter 

 quoted by Millais, says that he has received wild cats which, judging 

 from their size, were probably born in August or September, and 

 that in captivity he has observed a female experience " heat " during 

 the summer. " Many years, when owing to the death of the young, 

 or the fact that the pair had not bred -together in the spring, I have 

 kept male and female together all summer, but they showed no 

 inclination to breed." In a more recent letter to the author 

 Mr. Cocks states that the old female wild cat in his possession came 

 " in season " and received the male in the autumn of 1904, after the 

 death of the kittens which were born earlier in the same year. The 

 animal, however, failed to become pregnant. In the experience of 

 this observer the commonest month for wild kittens is May, but the 

 range of dates in his collection varies from 20th April to 22nd July. 

 The period of gestation was ascertained to be sixty-eight days. The 

 period of oestrus was observed to last for five days, or about the same 

 time as in the domestic cat. 



The male wild cat has a definite season of rut (like the stag), and 

 calls loudly and incessantly, making far more noise than the female 

 cat. 1 This information is interesting, since the males of most 

 Carnivora, so far as is known, do not experience anything of the 

 nature of a recurrent rutting season, although many individuals 

 show indication of increased sexual activity at some times more 

 than at others. So far as I am aware, nothing of the nature of a 

 rutting season is ever known in the males of the domestic cat, dog, 

 or ferret, all of which seem to be capable of coition at any period of 

 the year. On the other hand, the males of certain seals appear to 

 possess a season of rut at the same time as the sexual season in the 

 females. 



Little is known definitely regarding the breeding habits of the 

 larger FelidiB in their wild state, beyond the fact that they probably 

 agree in having a single annual sexual season. In captivity certain 

 of them, at any rate, are polycestrous. Thus, in the lioness oestrus 

 has been known to recur at intervals of three weeks until the animal 

 became pregnant, while the period of oastrus may itself last a week. 2 

 Further, the lioness may experience three or four sexual seasons in 

 the year, as in the domestic cat, this having been observed to occur 

 in the lioness in the Dublin Zoological Gardens when copulation had 



1 I am indebted to Mr. Cocks for information regarding the breeding habits 

 of the wild cat. 



2 See Marshall and Jolly, loc. tit. 



