297 



BURMESE CAT. 

 (Photo: E. Latuior, Baling) 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



SOME FOREIGN CATS. 



IT is not intended in the following notes to 

 enter into a description of the various 

 beautiful and interesting wild felines, for 

 although some of these such as the Ocelot, 

 the Geoffrey's Cat, and the Wild Cat are not 

 infrequently seen in the pens at our leading 

 shows, such matter really comes more within 

 the province of a natural history than of the 

 present work. 



Two varieties alone may justly claim some 

 slight attention here, these being the Egyptian 

 cat (Felis maniculata] and the European wild 

 cat (F. catus). It might reasonably be 

 imagined that our common cat was derived 

 from the last-named, considering that at one 

 time it was a common animal all over England, 

 as well as on the Continent. The untamable 

 ferocity of this variety which is probably the 

 least amenable of all living creatures has 

 doubtless prevented its ever having been 

 domesticated, and the high value which, as 

 we learn from old writings, was placed upon 

 the domestic puss at a time when the wild cat 



was a common animal in England, plainly 

 show that F. catus was not the ancestor of 

 jF. domestica, although the two will freely inter- 

 breed. Many years ago, for instance, the old 

 Spanish wild cat which used to be kept at the 

 Zoological Gardens in the so-called aviaries, 

 now occupied by the civets, mated with his 

 cage mate a tortoiseshell-and-white queen - 

 and of these cross-bred kittens both Sir Claud 

 Alexander and the writer of these lines pos- 

 sessed specimens. 



It is usually assumed that the Egyptian or 

 Caff re cat is the progenitor of the majority of 

 the domestic cats. This is the variety which 

 was domesticated, revered, and embalmed by 

 the ancient Egyptians. It is found over the 

 whole of Africa, and it is quite easy to under- 

 stand how, with its eminently tamable dis- 

 position, it gradually spread over Europe. Our 

 so-called Abyssinian cats, to which reference 

 will be made later on, bear a very striking 

 resemblance to this handsome variety of cat. 



The domestic cats of other parts of the 



