4G DOMESTIC CATS. Chap. I 



parent-forms of our cats. Several naturalists, as Pallas, 

 Temmiuck, Blyth, believe that domestic cats are the descend- 

 ants of several species commingled : it is certain that cats 

 cross readily v^^ith various v\dld sjoecies, and it vi'ould appear 

 that the character of the domestic breeds has, at least in some 

 cases, been thus aifected. Sir W. Jardine has no doubt that, 

 " in the north of Scotland, there has been occasional crossing 

 with our native species (F. sylvestris), and that the result of 

 these crosses has been kept in our houses. I have seen," he 

 adds, " many cats very closely resembling the v^^ild cat, and 

 one or two that could scarcely be distinguished from it." Mr. 

 Blyth ^^ remarks on this passage, " but such cats are never 

 seen in the southern parts of England ; still, as compared 

 with any Indian tame cat, the affinity of the ordinary British 

 cat to F. sylvestris is manifest ; and due I suspect to frequent 

 intermixture at a time when the tame cat was first introduced 

 into Britain and continued rare, while the wild species was 

 far more abundant than at present." In Hungarj^ Jeitteles ^° 

 was assured on trustworthy authority that a wild male cat 

 crossed with a female domestic cat, and that the hybrids long 

 lived in a domesticated state. In Algiers the domestic cat 

 has crossed with the wild cat (-F. lybica) of that country.^^ 

 In South Africa as Mr. E. Layard informs me, the domestic 

 cat intermingles freely with the wild F. caffra ; he has seen 

 a pair of hybrids which were quite tame and particularly 

 attached to the lady who brought them up ; and Mr. Fry has 

 found that these hybrids are fertile. In India the domestic 

 cat, according to Mr. Blyth, has crossed with four Indian species. 

 With respect to one of these species, F. chaus, an excellent 

 observer. Sir W. Elliot, informs me that he once killed, 

 near Madras, a wild brood, which were evidently hybrids 

 from the domestic cat ; these young animals had a thick 

 lynx-like tail and the broad brown bar on the inside of the 

 forearm characteristic of F. chaits. Sir W. Elliot adds that he 



** Asiatic Soc. of Calcutta ; Cura- thib Report a very interesting discus- 

 tor's Report, Aug. 1856. The passage sion on their origim. 

 from Sir W. Jardine is quoted from ^^ ' Fauna Huugaria; Sup.,' 1862, 

 this Report. Mr. Blyth, who has s. 12. 



especially attended to the wild and "' Isid. Geoffroy Saint - Hilaire, 



domestic cats of India, has given in ' Hist. Nat. Gen.,' torn. iii. p. 177. 



