62 



THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 



trminion of Pircj Ltigh Pembtrton^ Esq. 



SCOTCH WILD CATS 



These 'wild cats, the property of Mr. P. Leigh Pembcrton, though regularly fed and -well treated, show their natural bad-temper in their faces 



family were trapped in Aberdeenshire and brought to the Zoological Gardens. Four kittens, 

 beautiful little savages, with bright green eyes, and uninjured, were safely taken to Regent's 

 Park. But the quarters given them were, very small and cold, and they all died. Two other 

 full-grown wild cats brought there a few years earlier were so dreadfully injured by the abomi- 

 nable steel traps in which they were caught that they both died of blood-poisoning. 



The real wild cats differ in their markings on the body, some being more clearly striped, 

 while others are only brindled. But they are all alike in the squareness and thickness of head 

 and body, and in the short tail, ringed with black, and growing larger at the tip, which ends off 

 like a shaving-brush. 



It may well be asked, Which of the many species of wild cats mentioned above is the an- 

 cestor of our domestic cats ? Probably different species in different countries. The African 

 Kaffir cat, the Indian leopard-cat, the rusty-spotted cat of India, and the European wild cat all 

 breed with tame cats. It is therefore probable that the spotted, striped, and brindled varieties of 

 tame cats are descended from wild species which had those markings. The so-called red tame 

 cats are doubtless descended from the tiger-coloured wild cats. But it is a curious fact that, 

 though the spotted gray-tabby wild varieties are the least common, that colour is most frequent 

 in the tame species. 



THE LYNXES 



IN the LYNXES we seem to have a less specially cat-like form. They are short-tabled, high 

 in the leg, and broad-faced. Less active than the leopards and tiger-cats, and able to live either 

 in very hot or very cold countries, they are found from the Persian deserts to the far north of 

 Siberia and Canada. 



The CARACAL is a southern, hot-country lynx. It has a longer tail than the others, but the 

 same tufted ears. It seems a link between the lynxes and the jungle-cats. It is found in India, 

 Palestine, Persia, and Mesopotamia. In India it was trained, like the cheeta, to catch birds, 



