146 MR. R. I. pococK ON [Feb. 19, 



species of Felis is on the whole constant. Stripes may break up 

 into spots or spots may run together to form stripes, or both spots 

 and stripes may be altogether fugitive. Yet even in extreme 

 and rare cases of this nature, the general "character" of the 

 pattern, when detectable, remains the same, and there is abund- 

 ance of evidence that the animals breed true to the local type. 

 JVor, so far as I am aivare, is there any reason to suppose that 

 dimorphism in p)attern ever occurs or has ever occurred in any 

 species of the genus Felis. 



It is needless to say more in support of the contention that if a 

 decided difference in the " patterns " of Domestic Cats exists, it 

 must be regarded as furnishing a surer basis for their classification 

 than the length of the hair, the tint of the coat, or the stunting 

 of the tail. 



It may also be claimed with assurance that the pattern supplies 

 a more important clue to the ancestry of Domestic Cats than the 

 features just mentioned. 



Probably no one will dispute that all breeds of Domestic Oats 

 have been derived from one or more than one ancestral type that 

 was marked with bands or spots. This opinion is supported by 

 two considerations. The first is this : spotting or banding of one 

 type or another characterises the great majority of the existing 

 species of Cats, using this term in its broad sense as co-extensive 

 with the genus Felis*. A few self-coloured Cats, like Lions, 

 Pumas, Caracals, and others, exist ; but their descent from striped 

 or spotted forms is attested in most cases by the presence on the 

 cubs t of markings which are subsequently lost or by indications 

 of them, especially on the legs or lower parts of the body, in the 

 adults. 



The second pertinent point is the prevalence of stripes forming 

 a pattern of one kind or another, both in " Persians," '• Short- 

 haired," and " Manx" breeds, and the diiUculty breeders experience 

 in eradicating these markings in their efforts to preserve a 

 particular self-coloured type. Frequently at all events the so- 

 called " blotched " pattern can be detected in certain lights even 

 in " Whites " and " Blacks," the two varieties which stand at the 

 extremes of the colour-mutations of the diverse domestic breeds. 



Assuming, then, that domestic breeds are descended from one or 

 more than one striped or spotted species, we may safely set aside 

 the self-coloured forms as derivatives and consider only the 

 striped or spotted types in looking for the origin and for a reliable 

 basis for the classification of Domestic Oats. 



Domestic Cats in which the markings on the skin form definite 

 patterns are called comprehensively "Tabbies." Of " Tabby "^ 

 Cats, as fanciers well know, there are two kinds, the " striped " and 

 the " blotched." These are not, however, regarded as different 



* I purposelj' ignore here the subgeneric divisions of Felis adopted in Trouessart's 

 ' Catalogue of Mammalia,' because I cannot admit that these connote, at least in all 

 cases, natural assemblages of species. 



t Young Caracals are not spotted or striped, but resemble their parents. 



