CATS GREAT AND SMALL 153 



LEOPARD CAT. The Leopard Cat (Fig. 116) is found in 

 South-Eastern Asia, and is known by a great many different names. 

 This is doubtless to be accounted for by reason of the variation in 

 colour and markings to which this pretty species is subject. 



It is about the size of the ordinary domestic Cat, but has longer 

 ears- A general description of the coat must suffice, as the variation 

 is so great that a comprehensive account is impossible. 



The upper parts are usually pale tawny of some kind, " varying," 

 says one writer, "from rufous to greyish; while the spots, which 

 have a more or less marked tendency to form longitudinal lines, may 

 be either wholly black, or partly black and partly brown. The spots 

 extend over the under-parts and limbs and the upper part of the 

 tail ; although the tip of the tail is barred. Four distinct longitudinal 

 stripes on the forehead give a characteristic physiognomy to the 

 head, these stripes being generally continued in a more or less 

 distinct manner along the back." 



The Leopard Cat is to be numbered among the dwellers of the 

 forest, and occurs both in the Highlands and Lowlands of India 

 and other parts of South-Eastern Asia. The litter consists of three 

 or four young ones, and these are born during the early Spring, the 

 lair selected being a cliff or cave far from the haunt of man. 



It feeds on small mammals and birds, although it has been 

 known to seize a fowl almost as large as itself. It is a ferocious and 

 untamable little beast, and I have many times noticed how the 

 specimen depicted in Fig. 116 displays its temper when I have vainly 

 endeavoured to coax it into the open at the London Zoo. 



MARGAY. The Margay (Fig. 117) brings us almost to the end 

 of the small Cats included in this section. Like the Leopard Cat it 

 is an inhabitant of forest regions, but is of American parentage, the 

 specimen shown in the photograph having come from Northern 

 Brazil. Its range extends from Mexico to Paraguay. It is a beauti- 

 ful species so far as concerns its dress, being similarly striped and 

 spotted to the Ocelot already described. 



Individuals vary to a great extent, a fact to be particularly noted 

 with regard to several of the Cats recently under review, and different 

 names have in consequence been accorded to these varieties, includ- 

 ing that of the "Cauzel " of Costa Rica. 



Like many, if not most of its relatives, it is nocturnal in its 

 habits, feeding for the most part on birds, which, before being eaten, 

 are shorn of their feathers. 



