ITS RETIRING HABITS 25 



July i3th, 1875, 3; May 2ist, 1876, 2; May 

 29th, 1877, 3; May 23rd, 1878, 2 kittens. 

 Gestation was 68 days, and the kittens at birth 

 about double the size of tame ones.' Mr. 

 Pocock has kindly sent to the writer an account 

 of the breeding in the Zoological Society's 

 Gardens, London, of a male Scottish wild cat with 

 an Egyptian cat (Felts ocreata). Particulars of 

 this interesting experiment were given, with 

 excellent photographs, in the Proceedings of the 

 Zoological Society r , 1907. The striking con- 

 figuration of the markings of the surviving 

 kitten 'confirmed Mr. Pocock's opinion that 

 the striped-tabby Domestic Cat of Europe was 

 descended from the European and African Wild 

 Cats (Felis sylvestris and Felis ocreata)! 



That our wild cat will interbreed with the 

 domestic cat has always been taken for 

 granted, but is a positively ascertained fact ; 

 as one gentleman at least, Mr. A. H. Cocks, 

 has succeeded several times in obtaining the 

 cross. 



In proof that the wild cat is, up to the 

 present day at least, by no means so near 

 extinction as has sometimes been assumed, it 

 may be noted that living specimens are offered 

 to the Zoological Society every winter ; and 

 within a few weeks in 1909 no less than 



