THE PEDIGREE OF THE CAT 193 



identified, the first introduction of the animal must have 

 been at a much earlier date, the Roman evacuation 

 having taken place about the middle of the fifth century 

 of our era. 



Although cats of all colours are now met with, and some 

 of them at least have been long known there, the preva- 

 lence of " tabby " is, as already said, very characteristic of 

 the old domesticated breed in Europe. In Eastern Asia, 

 on the other hand, as was long since pointed out by that 

 very observant naturalist the late Edward Blyth, " tabbies " 

 are unknown, and either spotted or uniformly coloured cats 

 are prevalent. In India, for instance, where they have not 

 been crossed with a European stock, the ordinary cats are 

 either spotted or fulvous, with barred limbs. In Siam we 

 have the peculiar and valuable Siamese cat, characterised 

 by the uniformly tawny fur of the body, the dark muzzle, 

 under-parts, and limbs, the short legs, and blue eyes. 

 Again, the long-haired Persian or Angora breed is also 

 uniformly coloured, the prevalent tints being white, yel- 

 lowish, or greyish. 



Among the smaller wild species of the genus indigenous 

 to India is the desert-cat (Felts ornata), of which the 

 general colour is pale sandy, with small roundish black 

 spots on the body and elongated spots or streaks on the 

 neck and face, two dark bars being present on the inner 

 side of the fore-limb. From this species have probably 

 originated the spotted domesticated cats of India, in which 

 the spots tend to aggregate into streaks on the fore-part 

 of the body, while the slender tail is ringed. Probably, 

 however, considerable crossing has taken place with two 

 other wild Indian species — namely, the leopard-cat (F. ben- 

 galensis) and the tiny rusty-spotted cat (F. rubiginosd). 

 Many of these spotted Indian domesticated cats have run 



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