4 2 4 CARNIVORES. 



The general colour of this cat varies from a silvery-grey to a yellowish-buff, 

 becoming darker on the back, the chest being dark brown, while the under- 

 parts are lighter. The loins are marked by a few widely-separated transverse 

 stripes, while the club-like tail has six or seven dark rings. Occasionally also the 

 limbs may be slightly banded, while the front of the head is spotted, and the cheeks 

 are marked by the usual pair of transverse streaks. The peculiar silvery " wash " 

 on the fur is due to the circumstance that the ends of the longer hairs on the back 

 are white, with short black tips. 



In the steppes of Asia this cat takes the place of the wild cat of Europe. In 

 the time of Pallas, its describer, its range extended from the southern flanks of the 

 Urals through the Kirghiz, Turki, and Mongolian steppes to South -Siberia, and from 

 the foot of the Altai to Lake Baikal. Now, however, Pallas's cat appears to be 

 unknown in the Orenburg steppes. Its food is said to consist largely of the small 

 Rodents, commonly known as picas, or tailless hares (Lagomys). It is this cat which 

 was regarded by Pallas as being the ancestral stock from which the domesticated 

 Angora or Persian breed took origin, although the evidence in favour of this view 

 is insufficient. 



THE INDIAN DESERT- CAT (Felis ornata). 



As implied by its name, the Indian desert-cat, like the species last mentioned, is 

 an inhabitant of open regions, and in this respect differs widely from its spotted 

 compatriot, the leopard -cat. The desert -cat is another of the numerous species 

 agreeing approximately in size with average domestic cats, but it differs from the 

 three preceding species/ in that the ornamentation of the fur takes the form of spots, 

 which may have a tendency to arrange themselves in longitudinal lines along the 

 body. Moreover, the tail, instead of being short and bushy, as in the two preceding 

 species, is comparatively thin, tapering, and about equal in length to the head and 

 body. The general ground-colour of the desert-cat is pale sandy, or " isabelline " ; the 

 spots on the body are small and rounded, while those on the neck and head are 

 still smaller, elongated, and tend to form lines. The outer surfaces of the limbs 

 have dark bars, and the upper surface of the base of the tail is similarly barred, 

 while near the end the tail is ringed, and its tip is black. The soles of the feet are 

 also black below. This little cat is confined to the desert and sandy regions of 

 Western India, being especially common in the deserts to the east of the Indus, in 

 Sind, Western Raj put ana, and Hurriana, where, according to Mr. Blanford, it 

 subsists largely on the gerbils which abound in such regions. The spotted sandy 

 fur of this cat probably harmonises well in colour with the desert sands dotted here 

 and there with darker pebbles. 



In the deserts of Eastern Turkestan, in the neighbourhood of Yarkand and 

 Kashgar, this cat is replaced by the nearly-allied Shaw's cat (F. shawiana), dis- 

 tinguished by its rather larger size and shorter tail. 



Nearly related to the desert-cat is the far less common waved cat (F. torquata) 

 from Northern India, Kashmir, Nipal, etc. This species is distinguished by its 

 more uniform coloration of ashy-grey, becoming more or less rufous in some 

 specimens, and passing into buff on the lower parts. The head and back are 



