THE SHORT-HAIRED CAT 217 



of the forests of Great Britain (but, strange to say, none 

 are related to have ever been found in Ireland corre- 

 sponding to what we look upon as the Wild Cat, Felis 

 Syhestris, or Cafus), I have not the slightest doubt, as I 

 have seen them scores of times ; although some, or 

 perhaps many of them, may have mated with the real 

 Wild Cats, and so produced hybrids, in some measure 

 resembling the original variety. 



I think the domestic cats so well known to us, did not 

 originate from the Wild Cat, and that the two varieties 

 are quite distinct, and where they are seen together the 

 points of difference would at once be apparent. 



My friend, Harrison Weir, F.R.H.S., perhaps the 

 highest living authority on the subject, and whose charm- 

 ing book on cats will be well known to most of my 

 readers, writes a very interesting article on the Wild Cat, 

 and seems to confirm my view that it is anatomically 

 different from our domestic variety. 



In rather a quaint old book of mine, with many quite 

 astounding illustrations, called A New and Complete System 

 of Natural History, published by Alexander Hogg, as the 

 Act directs, at the King's Arms, N o. 1 6 Paternoster Row, 

 London, about 1763, I find it stated, that King 

 Richard II. granted a Royal Charter to the Abbot of 

 Peterborough, by which he was authorised to chase the 

 Fox, Hare, and Wild Cat, but whether this was a general 

 license to the genial ecclesiastic, to hunt those wily quad- 

 rupeds wheresoever he might meet with them, or only in 

 certain specified districts, is not stated. In Daniel's Rural 

 Sports we are told that Wild Cats were formerly 



