Chap. I. THEIR VARIATION. 49 



li.N.,^^ states that all the cats are covered with short stiff 

 hair instead of fur : he gives a curious account of a cat from 

 Algoa Bay, which had heeu kept for some time on board and 

 could be identified with certainty ; this animal was left for 

 only eight weeks at Mombas, but during that short period it 

 " underwent a complete metamorphosis, having parted with 

 its sandy-coloured fur." A cat from the Cape of Good Hope 

 has been described by Desmarest as remarkable from a red 

 stripe extending along the whole length of its back. Through- 

 out an immense area, namely, the Malayan archipelago, Siam, 

 Pegu, and Burmah, all the cats have truncated tails about 

 half the proper length,^*^ often with a sort of knot at the end. 

 In the Caroline archipelago the cats have very long legs, and 

 are of a reddish-yellow colour.^^ In China a breed has droop- 

 ing ears. At Tobolsk, according to Gmelin, there is a red- 

 coloured breed. In Asia, also, we find the well-known Angora 

 or Persian breed. 



The domestic cat has run wild in several countries, and 

 everywhere assumes, as far as can be judged hy the short 

 recorded descriptions, a uniform character. Near Maldonado, 

 in La Plata, I shot one which seemed perfectly wild ; it was 

 carefully examined by Mr. Waterhouse,*** who found nothing 

 remarkable in it, excepting its great size. In Kew Zealand 

 according to Dieffenbach, the feral cats assume a streaky grey 

 colour like that of wild cats ; and this is the case with the 

 half-wild cats of the Scotch Highlands. 



We have seen that distant countries possess distinct 

 domestic races of the cat. The differences may be in part 

 due to descent from several aboriginal species, or at least to 

 crosses with them. In some cases, as in Paraguay, Mombas, 

 and Antigua, the differences seem due to the direct action of 

 different conditions of life. In other cases some slight effect 

 may possibly be attributed to natural selection, as cats ii? 



85 ' Narrative of Voyages,' vol. ii. *' Admiral Lutke's Voyage, vol. 



p. 180. iii. p. 308. 



'^ J. Crawfiird, ' Descript. Diet, of ^' ' Zoology of the Voyage of the 



the Indian Islands,' p. 255. The Beagle, Mammalia,' p. 20. Dieffen- 



Madagascar cat is said to have a bach, ' Travels in New Zealand, vol. 



twisted tail; see Desmarest, in 'En- ii. p. 185. Ch. St. John, ' Wild Sports 



cyclop. Nat. Mamm.,' 1820, p. 233, of the Highlands,' 1846, p. 40. 

 for some of the other breeds. 



VOL. I. E 



