THE WILD CAT. 



'93 



WILD CAT. Fells Catus. 



life in the bush. Even tame and petted Cats have been known to take to poaching, and 

 to bring to their owner a daily pheasant or partridge. There are few more dangerous foes 

 to game than the domestic Cat, and the Wild Cat gets the credit of its misdeeds. 



Whether the Wild Cat be the original progenitor of our domestic Cat is still a mooted 

 point, and likely to remain so, for there is no small difficulty in bringing proofs to bear 

 on such a subject. It is certain that if such be the case, the change from savage to 

 domestic life must be of very long standing, for it is proved that certain distinctions 

 between the Wild and domestic Cat are found in full force, even though the domestic Cat 

 may have taken to a wild life for many a year. There are several points of distinction 

 between the Wild and the domestic Cat ; one of the most decided differences being found 

 in the shape and comparative length of their tails. 



As may be seen from the accompanying figure, the tails of 

 the two animals are easily distinguished from each other. The 

 upper figure represents the tail of the domestic Cat, which 

 is long, slender, and tapering, while the lower represents 

 the tail of the Wild Cat, which is much shorter and more bushy. 

 Now it is proved that, even if several domestic Cats have 

 escaped into the woods and there led a sylvan life, their long 

 tapering tails have been transmitted to their posterity through 

 many successive generations, in spite of their wild and maraud- 

 ing habits. 



The color of the Wild Cat is more uniform than that of the domestic animal, and is 

 briefly as follows : 



The ground tint of the fur is a yellowish, or sandy gray, diversified with dark streaks 

 drawn over the body and limbs in a very tigrine manner. These stripes run, as do those 

 of the tiger, nearly at right angles with the line of the body and limbs, so that the 

 creature has been termed, with some justice, the British Tiger. A very dark chain of 

 streaks and spots runs along the spine, and the tail is thick, short, and bushy, with a 

 black tip, and many rings of a very dark hue. The stripes along the ribs and on the legs 



CAT'S TAILS. 



